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

In less than 40 years, humanity will face the challenge of having to feed 9 billion inhabitants, which will require a 70% increase in global agricultural productivity. Currently, losses in crop yields caused by fungal diseases account for approximately $60 billion annually. Fusarium oxysporum is a devastating soil-borne pathogen that provokes vascular wilt in over a hundred field and greenhouse-grown crops both in industrialized and developing countries. Current methods of control of F. oxysporum depend on the extensive use of chemical pesticides, which is increasingly regarded as unsustainable. We propose here that the exploitation of the plant's innate immune system provides a powerful source for future Integrated Disease Management of vascular fusariosis. The resistance response that plants mount against F. oxysporum is multigenic, i.e. it involves the regulation of a network of genes that function in specific defence signalling pathways. F. oxysporum has developed sophisticated strategies to suppress the activation these defence mechanisms. Recently, the host group has demonstrated that this pathogen secretes a peptide that mimicks RALF (Rapid ALkalinization Factor), a family of plant regulatory peptides which triggers alkalinisation of the host tissue to enhance fungal colonization. It was proposed that Fusarium (F)-RALF target plant defence responses, however, the underlying mechanisms are currently unknown. ARMSRACE will investigate the mode of action of F-RALF in the manipulation of plant defence mechanisms upon infection, by genetically and biochemically dissecting the key defence pathways in the Arabidopsis-Fusarium interaction. This will reveal novel plant components and signalling modules targeted by fungal pathogens, which can be manipulated to increase resistance. The proposal addresses a crucial objective in food security, namely the sustainable control of plant diseases.

Mots clés : fungal pathogens, fusarium oxysporim, plant science, plant resistance, defence responses, jasmonic acid, hormonal cross talk, arabidopsis, tomato, sustainable agriculture

Participants :
- University of Córdoba (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 170121.6 €
Projet SuccHSC (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2020)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : SIGNED

In life, no matter how small, changes can have huge impact on its quality. For hematopoietic stem cells (HSC), similar can happen. Through minor shifts, from normal to pre-leukemic and finally leukemic phenotype, generation of leukemic stem cells (LSC) results in overt malignancy, such is acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Life quality of AML patients is severely impaired, even in “disease-free” state after the treatment. AML chemotherapy and stem cell transplant offers 5-year survival to only 20% of patients above age of sixty, 40% to the rest. Currently, a major clinical factor in AML onset and relapse are ever-present LSC. Mechanisms by which HSC turn into LSC, in their highly regulated environment, are still largely unknown, which is why new knowledge is needed to unveil this troubling issue. With the growing amount of data correlating chronic inflammation and onset of various types of malignancies, the SuccHSC project will explore the role of succinate, one of the major inflammation-induced effector molecules, in LSC formation by epigenetic remodeling of HSC. Chronic inflammation generates various molecules, which can be picked-up by bone marrow HSC. Chronic HSC activation leads to peripheral blood entering, myeloid skewing, self-renewal exaustion and even perhaps leukemia. On mechanistic side, HSC react to inflammatory mediators by elevated glycolysis, reduced oxygen and increased succinate. New succinate molecules can reach nucleus through mito-nuclear communication. Among other modifications, histones were shown to be modified with succinate, but yet with no known role. SuccHSC will explore histone succinylation and its effect on gene expression comparing leukemic and normal human samples biochemically, by ChIP-seq and by RNA-seq. Transgene succinate-dehydrogenase KO mice model, which accumulates succinate, will be used to confirm succinylation role in gene expression regulation and HSC transformation into pre-leukemic cell stage.

Mots clés : chronic inflammation, hematopoietic stem cells, leukemic stem cells, hypoxia, mitochondria, metabolism, cell respiration, tca cycle, succinate, histones, epigenetic, succinylation, gene expression

Participants :
- UiT The Arctic University of Norway (Norvège) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 202158.72 €
Projet LV-Pri20 (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2014)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Information Science and Engineering
Statut du projet : CLOSED

In line with the EU 2020 Flagship Initiative on a Digital Agenda for Europe and the upcoming EU Cybersecurity Strategy, the goal of the LV-Pri20 project is to aid our ICT-driven lives, by “safeguarding the human right of privacy in the digital society”. Concretely, the main focus of LV-Pri20 is the formal and automatic analysis of privacy-preservation in today’s ICT. LV-Pri20 will focus on the prevalent wireless media, e.g., RF-identification protocols, remote car-unlocking, wearables, machine-to-machine communication in the Internet of Things (IoT)/ubiquitous computing, but it will not neglect wired environments (given their common cloud-connection). LV-Pri20 will assess and automatically analyse privacy-sensitive applications, in their standalone execution, as well as in the more involved setting of multiple, concurrent executions thereof. This will be done systematically and taxonomically: distinct classes of applications (e.g., identification protocols using Electronic Product Codes vs. the Open Smart Grid Protocol) and different privacy properties (e.g., data non-leakage vs. data-user unlinkability) will be respectively analysed via tailored, well-defined techniques. To specify privacy, LV-Pri20 will design/refine different non-classical logic languages which have inherent semantics for privacy-like expression (e.g., strategy logics). For these, we will then develop new model checking algorithms. All will be incorporated in automatic verification software, which already proved efficient in analysing highly distributed systems, inline with, e.g., the IoT applications envisaged herein. LV-Pri20 will have a multi-disciplinary, collaborative nature, an academic core and industrial side. After an initial privacy scrutiny, new/patched RFID-based, privacy-preserving, communication protocols will be (re-)designed and implemented. For these, we will devise mathematical proofs for one-session security, and run automatic analysis of their multi-session executions.

Mots clés : applied non classical logics, model checking, privacy

Participants :
- Imperial College London (Royaume-Uni) — Partner, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 100170.59 €
- University of Surrey (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 95284.21 €
Projet LED4Nature (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2019)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : CLOSED

In line with the European Energy Strategy on H2020, intensified research on the development of more-efficient and cost-effective light emitting diodes (LEDs) is required. In this regard solution processable colloidal quantum dots (QDs) and metal halide perovskites (PS) showed excellent proficiency to realize effective devices with low fabrication cost on large-area and light-weight substrates. Despite the high potentiality of developing advanced LEDs by exploiting the combination of PS and QDs, the investigation of the interactions of both materials is still in its early stage; and much is yet to be discovered regarding the charge-transport dynamics, mobilities, and defect states in different compositions of these hybrid materials. Our project's research objectives address this crucial issue and focus on designing novel, lead-free, QD@2D-PS hybrids, optimize their composition through studying their electro-optical properties, and finally characterize their performance in LED devices. The project (LED4Nature) will provide detailed knowledge about the effectiveness of Sn based 2D PS as a matrix for lead-free near-IR emitting QDs, and understanding of the effect of structural modifications (QD size, shell thickness, and PS's cation) on their spatially- and temporally- resolved photo-induced phenomena by time-resolved transient absorption and femtosecond terahertz spectroscopy, along with fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy. Such information will be essential for the optimization and acceleration in the development of LED devices based on these hybrid materials which will be achieved through planned secondments to an expert group- and is expected to have significant industrial and socio-economic impacts. Comprehension of such multidisciplinary project will not only provide the fellow excellent research training, but will also provide a skill-set of transferable skills which will improve and diversify the fellow's future employment perspectives.

Mots clés : quantum dots, perovskite, excitons, charge carriers, ultrafast dynamics, laser spectroscopy, ligthing

Participants :
- University of Castilla-La Mancha (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 172932.48 €
Projet ISULO (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2018)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships
Panel : Mathematics
Statut du projet : SIGNED

In medicine and agronomy, there is a growing interest in identifying biological mechanisms involved in the evolution of traits along time. Nowadays, this challenging objective is achieved through the acquisition of high-dimensional –omic datasets from various biological levels, and with the collection of phenotype measures along time on the same individuals, so-called longitudinal data. A new research focus is emerging with the objective to analyze jointly these two types of data. In this project, we propose to develop innovative statistical methods to simultaneously analyze these types of data and to deal with their respective characteristics. Novel methodologies will be developed by combining statistical concepts from linear mixed model and variable selection in a Bayesian framework, and by incorporating or inferring biological relationships. The first aim will focus on the analysis of one or more longitudinal outcomes with one –omic data. Flexible modeling for approximating time-varying covariate effects combined with variable selection approaches will be proposed. Thus, a better understanding of the relationships along time between the outcomes and the relevant covariates will be reached. The second objective is to investigate the integration of multiple –omic datasets for explaining one univariate outcome, then one longitudinal response variable, and finally multivariate longitudinal outcomes. Bayesian hierarchical modeling with prior distributions allowing to capture relationships among –omic datasets will be investigated and new relationships among –omic datasets will be explored. The developments and findings of this project research will greatly contribute to the statistical and biological domains. New generic statistical methods will be developed and will be available for transversal applications in various fields. Finally, this project will highlight the added value brought by a collaborative and interdisciplinary work with experienced researchers.

Mots clés : bayesian inference, integrative  omic, longitudinal data, multivariate phenotypes, variable selection

Participants :
- Centre de coopération internationale en recherche agronomique pour le développement (France) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 275619.84 €
- George Washington University (Etats-Unis) — Partner, organization partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
Projet PROPEL (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2019)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : CLOSED

In medieval and Renaissance Europe, prophetic discourse was one of the most incisive means for proposing or opposing alternative models of political and religious order. A large number of short prophecies circulated at that time throughout the continent, which have never received a thorough analysis. Because of the outstanding quality and variety of the documentation, Florence and Tuscany offer a perfect starting point. PROPEL will be the first systematic investigation of the circulation of prophetic texts (direct or reported), from all over Europe, in the Tuscan cities, bearing in mind two key figures as chronological limits: Dante Alighieri (d. 1321) and Girolamo Savonarola (d. 1498). The aim of the project is to analyze the entire corpus of prophecies (in Latin or in vernacular, in prose or in verse), which is transmitted by a great variety of manuscripts (flyleaves, fliers, miscellanies) or included in larger texts (chronicles, sermons, encyclopedic works). This philological challenge will be the premise for a new and comprehensive interpretation of prophetic discourse as having a performative nature. In this perspective, the public sphere can be considered the lively theater in which civic identity was at the same time represented and created by prophecies: that is to say, texts which put into play not only ideas, but also strong emotions such as love and hate, hope and fear. The project proposes an unprecedented dialogue between material philology, media studies and history of emotions. This interdisciplinary perspective will change the way in which late medieval and Renaissance prophecy is perceived in available scholarship. Moreover, by reflecting on the ways one-sided information shapes collective identities and future-oriented emotions influence the public sphere, PROPEL will develop a dialogue with journalists and politicians in order to deconstruct and dismantle the intensifying rhetoric of religious extremism, xenophobic nationalism and media violence.

Mots clés : prophecy, millenarianism, messianism, manuscript culture, material philology, public sphere, performative discourse, civic identity, emotions, violence

Participants :
- Ca' Foscari University of Venice (Italie) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 251002.56 €
- University of Chicago (Etats-Unis) — Partner, organization partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
Projet RESPONSE 5G (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2017)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Information Science and Engineering
Statut du projet : CLOSED

In modern digital societies, mobile networks provide connectivity that is crucial for the operation of all other critical infrastructures such as energy, transport etc. Thus, a disruption in the telecommunication infrastructure will lead to severe social and economic consequences. These disruptions often have unpredictable causes such as cyber-attacks, natural catastrophes, technical and human errors. Thus, there is an urgent need to strengthen mobile networks against both cyber and physical threats. Responding to these threats has been identified as a priority by the EU. Future 5th-Generation (5G) mobile networks will be designed using Software Defined Networking (SDN) and network virtualization principles to transform rigid and disparate legacy mobile networks into scalable and dynamic ecosystems. In large-scale SDN networks such as mobile networks, multiple SDN controllers are used to control different network segments. Inter-Controller Communication (ICC) between these multiple SDN controllers is necessary to share control information and to perform important network management functions. If ICC is compromised, then the whole system will be compromised regardless of what happens in the rest of the network. Inevitably, 5G ICC is also vulnerable to a wide range of cyber and physical threats. Since, the exsisting SDN security systems cannot provide a sufficient level of security for 5G ICC against both cyber and physical threats, the RESPONSE-5G project will be the first research project to implement and validate a robust and secure Multi-Controller Communication Platform for 5G Networks which includes prevention and mitigation against both cyber and physical attacks. RESPONSE-5G has far-reaching potential impacts in the domains of 5G security. Through this fellowship and the planned secondments, the candidate will gain advanced research skills and develop abilities in technology transfer and industry engagement, in order to fully exploit these impacts.

Mots clés : security, cyber attacks, sdmn  software defined mobile networks, sdn  software defined networks, nfv  network functions virtualization, formal analysis

Participants :
- National University of Ireland (Irlande) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 187866.0 €
Projet EffectorTargets (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2014)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

In nature, fungi live in close contact with many different hosts: plants, other fungi, insects and even vertebrates including humans. They do so because the host often supplies key nutrients, which enables the fungus to grow and successfully reproduce. In many cases though, a fungus can act as a parasite and infects the host. As a result, the host mounts an immune reaction to combat the fungal infection. The fungus, in turn, has evolved ways to circumvent the immune reaction. This “arms race” between fungus and host has given rise to a plethora of secreted proteins that the fungus uses to suppress the host immune responses and circumvent host defence reactions. These secreted proteins from fungi that function in this arms race are commonly known as “effectors”. A very important plant pathogenic fungus that is predicted to encode close to 500 of such effector proteins is the barley powdery mildew fungus Blumeria graminis f. sp. hordei. Unravelling the functions of these effector proteins will provide important insights into fungal pathogenicity and host immunity. To date, the roles of the vast majority of the effector proteins are unknown. One way to elucidate the functions of these numerous effector proteins is to express each separately in model eukaryotic organisms like yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, or algae, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii and identify conserved cellular targets of these effector proteins. This approach has proven to be very successful in identifying targets of bacterial effector proteins. In the project described here, this yeast- and algae-based system will be applied for the first time for fungal effector proteins. Effectors are, besides being used by fungi to infect plants and other organisms, also a potential new source to rewire cells. When interesting conserved targets of these effectors are found, it opens up ways to use them in biotechnology and for medical purposes.

Mots clés : plant pathogen, effector protein, yeast, chlamydomonas reinhardtii, cellular targets, high throughput screening

Participants :
- Imperial College London (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 183454.8 €
Projet OILY MICROCOSM (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2016)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships
Panel : Environment and Geosciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

In oligotrophic marine ecosystems, the natural or accidental release of crude oil marks the beginning of a season of feast for indigenous microbial consortia that have developed appropriate adaptive machinery to access and assimilate hydrocarbons. Biodegradation and bioemulsification are among the key processes by which marine microbes strongly affect the transport and fate of crude oil in the sea. Unraveling of the coupled physical and biochemical interactions between microbes and oil droplets will be a major enabler for achieving a new level of prediction of crude oil dispersion as well as for developing more efficient bioremediation techniques to combat oil spills in marine environments. The proposed research project aims at an improved understanding of the fundamental microscale mechanisms that underpin oil biodegradation with a highly innovative focus at both the single-droplet and droplet-population levels. In particular, at the single-droplet level, our focus is on the droplet-microbe interactions and the dynamics of biofilm formation over the oily substrate. Ultimately, the developing interfaces between biofilms, oil and water will be tracked and quantitatively visualized. At the droplet-population level, our focus is on the evolution of the droplet size distribution (DSD) and its impact on the average biodegradation rates for a cloud of oil microdroplets (10-60 um). The research methodology is based on a creative combination of state-of-the-art microfluidics, biochemical analyses and computational modeling. All in all, this project is expected to provide a unique and original approach to a fundamental problem in microbial ecology that has wide societal and economical repercussions. Importantly, a profound impetus will be given to the Researcher’s career via strengthening his publication record and his professional network of contacts.

Mots clés : biodegradation, biofilms, crude oil, microfluidics, computational modeling

Participants :
- Technical University of Crete (Grèce) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 176408.1 €
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Etats-Unis) — Partner, organization partner, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 0.0 €
Projet 2D-COF-WS (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2016)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : CLOSED

In order to mitigate the energy crisis and serious environmental pollution as well as global warming, the conversion of solar energy into chemical fuels including hydrogen has been extensively developed to flexibly and conveniently utilize this clean energy form. Generally, hydrogen can be produced via photocatalytic water splitting under sunlight irradiation. The efficiency of this solar driven process to synthesize hydrogen depends entirely on the selected semiconducting photocatalysts. Composed of light-weight elements and linked by strong covalent bonds, two dimensional (2D) covalent organic frameworks (COFs) are low-cost, low-toxic and promising catalytic materials that can facilitate the water splitting process under solar irradiation. However, the structural, electronic and optical properties of 2D COFs can vary significantly with different factors, which will determine the final photocatalytic performance of 2D COFs. Therefore, finding viable 2D COFs for effective water splitting requires extensive fundamental research. In this project, we will explore the feasibility of using 2D COFs for photocatalysis on the basis of comprehensive theoretical computations. Via collaborating with experimental researchers, deep insights will be generated for the design and synthesis of 2D COF photocatalysts. After understanding the intrinsic properties and photocatalytic properties of 2D COFs, we will effectively and significantly help to design and screen promising catalysts for water splitting and promote the development and application of green energy.

Mots clés : 2d covalent organic frameworks, semiconductor, first principles calculations, molecular coupling, water splitting

Participants :
- TU Dresden (Allemagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 64297.8 €
- Leipzig University (Allemagne) — Partner, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 107163.0 €