Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-actions-marie-curie-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet Protoeukaryotes (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2015)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Protocells are artificial mimics of cellular systems exhibiting some of the quintessential characteristics of living systems such as compartmentalization, replication and selective exchange of chemical species with the environment. Apart from enabling better understanding about the origin of life, protocells can also be perceived as micromachines which can be programmed to perform functions such as clinical diagnosis, drug delivery, remote sensing, environment detoxification, etc. The range of applications for protocells can be broadened by increasing their structural complexity which would enable complex functions. However, to date the structural complexity of protocellular models has been minimal. Eukaryotic cells are model systems for complexity with compartmentalization into membrane bound organelles interacting through selective exchange of metabolites resulting in complex chemical networks which make possible smart functions such as feedback regulation and homeostasis. No parallel of this hierarchical organization exists in protocell literature. The aim of this proposal is to address this issue by design and construction of multicompartmental protocell models capable of complex functions such as self-regulation, locomotion and light harvesting. The interaction between the various compartments will be enabled by constructing gates across their membranes using stimuli responsive polymers to allow compartments to activate pathways which can affect the function or metabolite level of another compartment, leading to self-regulation of function or metabolite levels in the protocell. It is in this regard that the previous expertise of the applicant (Dr. Pavan Kumar) in constructing gates to control the transport in nanochannels will be applied to the multi-disciplinary and cutting edge field of protocells in which the hosting group at the University of Bristol (under the leadership of Prof.Stephen Mann FRS) has made tremendous progress in the last few years.

Mots clés : protocell, feedback loops, enzyme cascades, locomotion

Participants :
- University of Bristol (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 183454.8 €
Projet HEMCAT (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2020)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Proton-exchange-membrane water electrolyzers are one of the most promising technologies for hydrogen production. Eliminating rare and expensive iridium in current electrocatalysts for the oxygen-evolution reaction (OER) in acidic media would greatly advance this technology for application on a large scale. The objective of the HEMCAT project is to produce new, cost-effective and high-performance (active and stable) electrocatalysts and to eliminate the iridium in OER electrocatalysts. The materials of focus are high-entropy materials (HEMs) that will be prepared from high-entropy alloys (HEAs) with the anodic oxidation process. Starting HEAs will be selected, prepared in bulk form and subjected to anodic oxidation processes to synthesise high-entropy oxides (HEOs) in the form of high-surface-area nanostructured films on HEA substrates. HEOs will be converted to HEMs with various treatments and will be fully characterized in terms of stability, structure and morphology. Finally, they will be tested for electrocatalytic properties in the OER reaction with state-of-the-art characterization techniques. These will include investigations of electronic and structural properties of synthesized cutting-edge electrocatalysts using synchrotron techniques (X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy (XAS) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements) under ex-situ, in-situ and operando conditions. HEMCAT addresses key issues in energy storage and conversion that is clean, compact, and ultimately low-cost and at the same time facilitates intra-European knowledge transfer along with direct societal impacts. The new efficient, stable and inexpensive electrocatalysts for the OER in acidic media will bridge the gap between fundamental and applied electrocatalysis and facilitate the development of advanced electrocatalysts for electrocatalytic applications.

Mots clés : electrocatalysis, pem electrolysis, oxygen evolution, iridium free catalysts, anodic oxidation of high entropy alloys, high entropy materials

Participants :
- University of Trieste (Italie) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 171473.28 €
Projet NoPHAME (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2017)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Provision of safe water is vital to ensure the stability and function of society and overall public health. The WHO estimates that 2 billion people still drink contaminated water, and lack access to safe sanitation. While the burden of waterborne diseases is disproportionally higher in poorer countries, the safety of our water supply is challenged everywhere by rapid world population growth and climate change, testing the capacity of sewage treatment systems and resulting in increasing environmental pollution. Therefore, effective removal and inactivation of viral pathogens during wastewater treatment is a global issue. Diseases due to consuming contaminated water are preventable and the resulting deaths can be avoided. Safe reuse of wastewater requires efficient inactivation of mammalian pathogens in the treatment process, especially emerging pathogenic viruses however current methods are established for bacteria and protozoa; far less is done for viruses due to greater diversity and the challenges of growing human and animal viruses. Bacteriophages, viruses of bacteria, offer an alternative as surrogates for mammalian viruses. In this fellowship, I propose to develop better systems to monitor and assess virus inactivation methods during wastewater treatment, through two specific objectives: (1) Identification of ubiquitous endogenous phage as surrogates for human/animal pathogenic viruses in virus inactivation evaluation; and (2) Develop phage activity assays to measure and evaluate the virus inactivation efficacy of novel wastewater reuse treatment schemes. Through this fellowship, I will gain multi-disciplinary knowledge and enhance my skills in virology, bioinformatics, microbiology and water technology. These acquired competences and experience will broaden my skills as an independent researcher. The outputs of this research fellowship are expected to have global application as well as provide useful tools for improving wastewater management and water quality.

Mots clés : bacteriophages, virus inactivation, surrogates, endogenous markers, global sewage, wastewater treatment, novel phages, rna phages

Participants :
- Erasmus MC (Pays-Bas) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 165598.8 €
Projet Island in the brain (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2019)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Psychiatric disorders such as addiction, depression and anxiety disorder are characterized by suboptimal decision making (DM) due to aberrant processing of negative information. However, it remains unclear which brain processes underlie suboptimal DM. One candidate brain region involved is the insular cortex (insula), which has been implicated in DM and in several psychiatric disorders. Laboratory tasks to assess DM in humans closely mimic real-life situations, providing participants with cues to guide their decisions, which can lead to winning or losing money, much like weighting information about risks and benefits when choosing between investing in stocks or bonds. However, the technology available to study the human brain is limited, whereas experiments with rodents allow for a detailed and fine-grained understanding of brain function. Importantly, in order to translate results between rodents and humans, the tasks used to assess behaviour need to be comparable, but there are currently no tasks in rodents to study cue-guided DM in the face of punishment. During the fellowship, I will study the involvement of the insula in DM when using cues to inform rats about potential punishments and benefits. To achieve this, I will: 1) Develop a novel behavioural task to assess “cue-guided risk/punishment decision making” in rats. 2) Assess the contribution of the insula by perturbing neural signalling in this brain region, and the network it is embedded in. The novel task has tremendous translational value in that it parallels tasks used in human populations and mimics real-life decisions. Therefore, the results of the project are relevant for testing the efficacy of treatment strategies targeted at the insula to alleviate psychiatric disorders such as anxiety disorders and addiction.

Mots clés : risk, reward, punishment, cues, decision making, prefrontal cortex, insular cortex, striatum, nucleus accumbens, gambling, addiction, rats

Participants :
- Utrecht University (Pays-Bas) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 187572.48 €
Projet LearningtoBelong (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2020)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Public education creates places for children in the future of a society. This is what the United Nations Refugee Agency intends by promoting the inclusion of refugee children into national education systems in countries of first asylum. However, everyday schooling experiences of refugee children exemplify that education presents less a magic portal to social inclusion than a site of continuous struggle over legitimate membership and equal opportunity. The proposed project aims to better understand the barriers to social inclusion in public schooling by examining how language preparatory classes socialize refugee students and their caregivers. While becoming proficient in the official language of the host country is understood to be a prerequisite for both educational and social inclusion, language learning is not a simple matter of an acquisition of a new skill. Rather, language learning constitutes a power-laden process, which introduces learners to broader social hierarchies. Accordingly, the proposed project seeks (i) to acquire new knowledge on how language preparatory classes frame conditions of social acceptance and how refugee communities respond to such educational measures, (ii) to contribute to the global discussion on barriers to social inclusion within refugee education while informing policymaking on a national scale in the country where it takes place, and (iii) to develop a collaborative and empowering research methodology when working with refugees. For this purpose, the study will employ a participatory action research methodology, which is based not only on inviting refugee caregivers to become active investigators of the study but also on developing a university-community partnership. The fellowship will support the researcher’s career development by expanding her methodological skills, improving her networking and cooperation skills, and building her capacity for higher social impact.

Mots clés : language preparatory classes, participatory action research, parent involvement in refugee education

Participants :
- Sabancı University (Turquie) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 157355.52 €
Projet QCYRISK (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2019)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Information Science and Engineering
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Quantifying cyber risk is an important step in assigning resources to prevention. Yet data limitations mean that current estimates ignore certain incidents (e.g ransomware), rarely provide the financial cost, and cannot describe how risk varies based on the firm’s revenue or industry. Surprisingly insurers sell cyber insurance for the ignored incident types and vary the price based on firm-specific characteristics. Extracting insurers’ cyber loss models could help firms manage risk, regardless of whether they purchase insurance. The proposed action (QCYRISK) uses an iterative model fitting approach to infer loss distributions from insurance prices. The first research question develops the conceptual foundations by building an economic argument about how much information can be extracted from insurance markets. QCYRISK's second question seeks to infer full cyber loss distributions, including how they vary based on firm-specific characteristics. The final research question adopts an adversarial machine learning approach to probe the validity of the inferences, using both synthetic distributions and real cyber crime data. In terms of results and dissemination, QCYRISK will provide a set of loss distributions for multiple cyber incident types adjusted based on the firm’s revenue and industry. These will be made available as a spreadsheet for real-world risk managers. We will also run a continuing education seminar for insurance professionals to raise awareness about the method. The developed method represents a new computational insurance technique that could be applied to extract information from a global total of €4.7 trillion insurance premiums.

Mots clés : cyber insurance, quantifying risk, security economics

Participants :
- Universität Innsbruck (Autriche) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 159653.12 €
Projet InCaSQuC (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2017)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Physics
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Quantum computation achieves a speed-up by placing quantum bits (qubits) in superpositions of different states. However, it has recently been appreciated that quantum mechanics allows one to superimpose not only states but also operations. Furthermore, coherently controlling the operation order with a quantum system enables task completion with fewer operations than any known quantum algorithm. This striking and new way to manipulate the information has not been technologically exploited yet because it requires coherently controlling and simultaneously manipulating high-dimensional quantum systems and multiple degrees of freedom. However, recent progress on Silicon Photonics allows the generation and manipulation of photonic high-dimensional quantum states in the frequency domain fostering the implementation of new complex quantum architectures. The purpose of this project is to create high-dimensional quantum systems with superposition of operation orders exploiting a multi-color Si photon-pair source. The unique combination of expertise of the experienced researcher and host institution offer all the ingredients to significantly contribute to the transition to a new era in quantum computing where information is processed with indefinite operation order. The project will allow us to scale up superposition of operation orders in order to solve computational problems, and thus to contribute to the transition of the field from fundamental physics to application-oriented research.

Mots clés : quantum computing, silicon photonics, integrated quantum circuits, quantum information sciences, quantum causality

Participants :
- Centre national de la recherche scientifique (France) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 185076.0 €
Projet ROFeRS (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2015)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Physics
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Quantum simulation is a highly multidisciplinary new field, which, by providing methods for simulating exponentially hard computational problems, forms the basis for the exploration of highly innovative scientific and technological problems. Laser control of atomic and molecular states in the sub-microK regime facilitates the quantum optical approach to quantum simulation, by offering tools for creating new quantum states and for manipulating interparticle interactions, so far on the sub-nm and the microm length scales. This proposal will contribute to this rapidly developing field by introducing a novel all-optical concept suitable for engineering long-range interactions between ground-state atom-atom and atom-ion pairs on a the yet unexplored length scale of ~50-200 nanometers. Key role in this novel technique will be played by bound molecular states formed by a Rydberg-atom and ground-state particles. Since the recent experimental demonstration of the first Rydberg-molecules with neutral atoms, these exotic molecular states have been the subject of intense investigation. The present proposal will investigate the existence of new types of Rydberg-bound states and will provide a general technique for Rydberg-based interaction manipulation. These techniques will serve as a basis for the investigation of novel quantum many-body states in the field of cold gases of neutral atoms and atom-ion mixtures. The complementary experience of the applicant in quantum optics, in particular in laser control of quantum-states of ground-state and Rydberg-excited atoms, and of the host group in many-body physics and laser-induced collisions will allow them to carry out the outlined ambitious research programme. The unique combination of expertise of the host group and of the candidate and the highly innovative nature of the project, makes the present proposal a key opportunity for the advancement of the applicant's career as a mature researcher in the field of quantum simulation.

Mots clés : quantum simulation, engineering long range interactions, rydberg molecules, atom atom and atom ion collisions, off resonant optical coupling, hybrid atom ion systems, new phases of atomic ensembles

Participants :
- Université de Strasbourg (France) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 173076.0 €
Projet QuNeS (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2018)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Physics
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Quantum theory usually assumes that the order in which events occur is fixed: given two events A and B, either A is in the causal past of B, A is in the causal future of B, or A and B are causally disconnected. This suggests some intriguing questions: What happens if we apply the laws of quantum mechanics to the causal order itself? Can we describe quantum physics when the usual notion of a causal structure becomes “fuzzy”? What kind of phenomena and information processing features can we expect in this scenario? Such questions are likely to be relevant for the phenomena expected in a theory of quantum gravity, and for the information theoretic power of such a theory. Recently, physicists working on quantum foundations have developed compositional frameworks for quantum mechanics on indefinite causal structures, starting to shed light on these questions. Up to now, the frameworks rely on abstract Hilbert space constructions, and there is no clear connection between this approach and other approaches to space-time physics. The goal of the present proposal is to make such a connection. Specifically, QuNeS will 1) Formulate an operational and compositional framework for quantum theory with indefinite causal structure where a notion of space-time appears explicitly. The formulation will include a detailed understanding of the symmetries of space-time quantum networks, and the treatment of quantum fields as systems under study. 2) Explore information-theoretic advantages implied by the framework. 3) Study the realization of indefinite causal structures. This study will include the possible gravitational origin of the realization, for example through the entanglement of gravitating quantum clocks. QuNeS will combine the researcher's experience on quantum clocks and dynamics of causal structures together with the host's expertise in compositional quantum theory and quantum foundations to reach a deeper understanding of causality and locality in quantum mechanics.

Mots clés : quantum causality, relativistic quantum information, interplay between quantum mechanics and gravity, quantum foundations, quantum information, diagramatic quantum mechanics

Participants :
- University of Oxford (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 212933.76 €
Projet LBSKQ (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2014)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Information Science and Engineering
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Query suggestion is a recent and important add-on feature of Web search engines (e.g., Google), which helps users to express their information needs precisely. Specifically, given the fact that the user may not be able to find appropriate keywords for her search, the system recommends to her a small set of keyword queries that are likely to match her original intention. As an example, when a user searches for “convertible car,” she may miss all the documents indexed under “cabriolet.” Therefore, the engine suggests “cabriolet” as a follow-up query to the user. There has been extensive research in the past decade on effective query suggestion. However, none of the existing keyword query suggestion methods consider the user’s location. We argue that the queries suggested to a user not only should be semantically relevant to her original query, but also should give results near the user’s location, especially when these queries are expressed by a mobile user; otherwise, the suggested queries might not be of interest to the user. Therefore, there is a need for effective location-based keyword query suggestion (LBKQS) models. The objectives of this project are (1) the development of LBKQS models, (2) the evaluation of the proposed models, (3) the development of efficient and scalable LBKQS techniques based on the most effective models. In the end, we expect our system to provide appropriate query suggestions to mobile users in real-time. The subject of this project is timely and of great interest to the research community and IT industries, therefore the research publications that will arise from it will improve the visibility of European research internationally. The Experienced Researcher (ER) has a notable publications record and extensive experience in subjects related to the proposal (spatial, textual, spatio-textual data management and mining). The project will help him to (i) enhance his skills in the areas of recommender systems, distributed/mobile data managem

Mots clés : keyword search, query suggestion, location based search

Participants :
- University of Ioannina (Grèce) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 164653.2 €