Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-actions-marie-curie-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet Divided communities (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2017)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Social Sciences and Humanities
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Social (in)justice is a key issue in today’s cities, which are characterized by growing socio-economic inequalities. Divided cities—such as Jerusalem and Nicosia—experience further tensions in light of their unstable geopolitical condition. While divided cities have been studied from a number of angles, little is known of the daily challenges that divided communities experience at the neighbourhood scale. This research proposes to study divided communities in East Jerusalem to examine the pressures that they experience and to elucidate the strategies they employ to better off their lives. Situated in the realm of urban planning, the study focuses on four key issues: a) governance, b) local leadership), c) housing, and d) municipal services, infrastructure and public space. The project utilizes diverse methods including interviews, focus groups, on-site visits, and mental maps to study the dynamics of integration and exclusion in three Palestinian and Israeli-Palestinian East Jerusalem neighbourhoods. This project involves an Advisory Board composed of experts in the fields of urban studies and political science, providing scholarly expertise and access to the research area. The project will be disseminated through scholarly publications and conference presentations. Moreover, a public outreach programme has also been designed to communicate the findings to local communities, NGOs, and policy makers. In addition, local Palestinian students will be participate in research activities. The project will advance the training of the Fellow, enabling her to reach a position of independence through learning new methods, mentoring students, and leading the planning and execution of the project. Findings from the research would extend beyond the particular status of divided cities, contributing to a more inclusionary planning theorization and practice by applying lessons from the experience of marginalized communities in Jerusalem to marginalized communities elsewhere.

Mots clés : divided cities, community mobilization, urban planning, social justice, jerusalem

Participants :
- Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Israël) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 182509.2 €
Projet SocBehGenoPheno (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2018)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Life Sciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Social behaviour plays an important role in the survival and development of many species with the most conspicuous and ubiquitous form being collective behaviour – the coordinated action of two or more individuals of the same species. Despite immense interest in collective behaviour in biology, the dynamic relationship between genotypes and phenotypes characterising this phenomenon remains opaque. Understanding this link, however, is crucial to elucidating the mechanisms of collective behaviour and emergence of social structures, and, most importantly, the genetic origins of social behaviour. In this project, I aim to quantify the genotype-phenotype mapping in the social behaviour of the nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans using quantitative phenotyping and computational modelling. Due to its unique amenability to exhaustive genetic analyses, trackability and rich collective properties (so-called collective feeding), C. elegans is a perfect system to address this question. My project will use high-throughput imaging data of social feeding in hundreds of different C. elegans strains. I will develop a novel dynamic multi-state model based on worm postures and spatial positions, allowing to quantitatively describe nematode social behaviour in a worm density-dependent manner. My research programme will, for the first time, rigorously examine the phenotypic behavioural space in C. elegans and test its tolerance to mutations in a social context, hereby providing insights into the genetic basis of emergent social behaviour. Such a study is extremely timely as it will build on the brand-new nematode data collected at my host university using cutting-edge imaging and tracking techniques. This interdisciplinary project will provide significant amounts of training in modern quantitative and systems biology, including data analysis and modelling, as well as in research project management and networking, and thus be an ideal stepping stone to an independent scientific career.

Mots clés : social behaviour, collective behaviour, computational modelling, genotype phenotype mapping, c  elegans, quantitative biology

Participants :
- Imperial College London (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 224933.76 €
Projet Mixed Anion Cathodes (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2019)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) are being developed and explored as potential electric storage for the grid applications due to infinite resources for sodium at cheaper price. The major impediment for its commercialization is unavailability of cathodes that possesses high output voltage and delivers high energy density. The state-of-art SIB positive electrodes consist of cathodes with the highest output potential (≤ 3.5 V) exhibiting lower specific capacities (150 mAh/g) while V2O5 cathodes delivered high specific capacity (225 mA/g) at low potential (2.5 V). Therefore, it will beneficial to design cathodes with high output voltage and capacity to build high energy density SIBs. In this project, the above drawbacks are mitigated by designing a new class of mixed anion compounds, vanadium oxyfluorides as novel cathode materials which are expected to deliver high specific capacities at higher operating voltage (≥ 3 V). These compounds are synthesized by partial fluorination using a non-hazardous organic reagents and novel one-pot microwave assisted methods. The as-prepared materials are characterized to identify their chemical compositions and crystallography using TEM, neutron and synchrotron diffraction techniques. These cathodes are subjected to electrochemical testing in a typical CR2032 coin cells. The solid state NMR is used to study the local structure and Na+ mobility inside cathode host while in-situ XPS provides insight into change in electrode composition at various stages of cycling. The electrochemical pulsed technique and impedance spectroscopy are used to determine diffusion coefficient of Na+ and electrochemical mechanism. The optimized materials will be further tested in a pouch cells resembling a real device. Therefore, this project elucidates the designing of a new class of mixed anions cathodes with high output voltage (≥ 3 V) and deliver high specific capacity (225 mAh/g) for fabricating high energy density SIBs (675 Wh/kg) for efficient grid storage.

Mots clés : mixed anion compounds, high voltage cathodes, microwave synthesis, solid state nmr, in situ, sodium ion battery

Participants :
- Fundación Universitaria San Pablo CEU (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 160932.48 €
Projet RoboTexTherapy (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2018)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Information Science and Engineering
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Soft Tissue Manipulation (STM) is a powerful and direct form of mechanotherapy, which has significant implications in physical rehabilitation, disease prevention and health promotions. Different types of devices for manipulating muscle tissue have been developed for clinical applications and pneumatic compression devices are already in the market and widely used. However, these systems have limited control modalities and lack of monitoring the forces being exerted to the body during the application and previous studies have shown that the loading conditions of soft tissue have a crucial effect on the mechano-therapeutic treatment. One of the main drawback of the pneumatic compression systems is they do need rigid and bulky pumping systems for the implementation of mechanotherapy and this requirement greatly reduces the mobility of the device. Furthermore, rigid-body industrial robotic manipulators have also been used for mechano-therapeutic applications. Although these systems have the ability to perfectly manipulate soft tissue and apply controlled forces, they are expensive and do not enable safe human-device interaction due to their rigid nature. Overall, to address the challenges above I will employ textile materials to achieve both sensing and actuation with the help of phase change property of low boiling point liquids. The textile-based approach will lead to system that are lighter and mobile and safe for human-device interaction. Its successful completion will contribute to the acceleration of the soft tissue providing better and more effective therapies in terms of wearability comfort, mobility and power consumption. By combining my existing skills with newly acquired skillset that will be gained during the fellowship I will have an opportunity for securing a permanent academic position within Marmara University or a top-tier European university and starting my own research group.

Mots clés : textile actuators, mechanotherapy, soft sensors, heating textiles, conductive fabrics

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

Soft robotics is a growing research field promising to apply automation to new areas of our societies such as medicine, agriculture and exploration. However, since soft robotics is a relatively recent research field, many fundamental components of soft robots still demonstrate disappointing capabilities. Indeed, actuation is one of the most vital requirement of robots but it is yet to be solved adequately. This proposal describes the development and characterization of a new soft actuator. We call these innovative soft actuator “M-SCPAs”, as they are inspired by recent advances in Magnetoactive polymeric fiber (MAEs) and Supercoiled Polymer Actuators (SCPAs). M-SCPAs will be manufacThis proposal aims at creating a new type of soft actuator. Soft actuators are a key component of the soft robotics research field, with applications in medical, agricultural or wearable technologies. We propose to use “M-SCPAs”, named after the 2 key distinct concepts used in their design. -The first key concept is the use of a magnetoactive (M-) polymeric fiber. Inspired by recent advances in magnetoactive materials, we propose to embed strongly magnetized ferromagnetic particles within an extruded polymer fiber. When exposed to a magnetic field, the particles will internally pivot, and the fiber contract. -The second key concept is the use of an helical structure similar to the one used by “Supercoiled Polymer Actuators” (SCPAs). The twisting of a polymeric fiber creates a three-dimensional structure akin to a typical steel spring. From this structure is derived inherent softness, convenient form factor, as well as increased contractile capabilities. The proposal details the combination of these two ideas to create a new type of actuator overcoming each of the respective original actuators limitations. The proposal also proposes the demonstration of these actuators through the manufacture of a soft wearable haptic device powered and its subsequent use in an haptic feedback study.

Mots clés : soft actuators, haptics, exoskeleton, magnetoactive polymers, supercoiled polymer actuator

Participants :
- Board of the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology (Suisse) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 191149.44 €
Projet FlexMod (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2018)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Environment and Geosciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Soil organic matter is the largest land carbon (C) pool, vulnerable to land-use change and climate change. Soil C models are used to assess current organic C stocks and make predictions under future conditions. These models are typically developed to make predictions over centennial timescales. Given the ‘4 per mil’ initiative, there is now a critical need for annual-to-decadal soil C stock predictions to evaluate land management decisions and hold participants accountable to stated goals. The project proposes a new soil model framework to make predictions at annual-to-decadal timescales by developing a Bayesian forecasting model from a deterministic soil carbon model with the capacity to ingest multiple data types, propagate uncertainty from data and parameters into predictions, and update predictions when new data become available. The main focus is probabilistic prediction of soil C changes under land use and climate change for the next two decades. Specifically, the project plans build a forecasting model version of the Millennial model, recently developed by the researcher with University colleagues. The Millennial model is an evolution of the commonly used soil C model Century – also incorporated in the global land surface model (ORCHIDEE) of the host institution (LSCE) - but in contrast to Century, Millennial includes soil pools that correspond directly to measurements. First, we will develop the Bayesian calibration of modeled temperature response against warming experiment data, using the Millennial model to integrate measurements from the multi-national, collaborative whole-soil warming experiments FORHOT and BBSFA. Then, we will develop the Bayesian calibration of the modeled land management response against field data with different amounts and quality of added litter. We will then incorporate this new model into ORCHIDEE to predict soil C storage for near term land-based mitigation objectives of the Paris Climate Agreement.

Mots clés : carbon cycling, soil warming, land use change, soil decomposition, predictive modeling, bayesian prediction

Participants :
- Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (France) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 184707.84 €
Projet VULCAN (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2014)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - Global Fellowships
Panel : Environment and Geosciences
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Soil organic matter provides essential ecosystem services and is one of the largest C reservoirs on Earth, holding more than three-fold as much C as does the atmosphere. Over 75% of the global soil organic C pool is stored in permafrost and dryland regions, both under high pressure due to climate change. In particular, global warming may accelerate soil organic matter decomposition in these ecosystems, which may dramatically endanger their functioning and worsen climate change by releasing significant amounts of CO2 to the atmosphere. However, the rate of this effect and to what extent it may be offset by warming-induced increases of plant-derived organic inputs remain highly uncertain. The main objective of this project is to gain a deeper insight into the vulnerability of soil organic matter to climate change in permafrost and drylands, and to explore potential implications in terms of ecosystem functioning and feedback to global warming. We will use globally unique ecosystem warming experiments in Alaska (permafrost) and central Spain (dryland), with a well-established monitoring of plant productivity, phenology, and nutrient status, soil physical, chemical, biochemical, and microbiological properties, and CO2 fluxes. We will focus on the destabilization, stabilization, and transformation processes of soil organic matter at the molecular level by using an unparalleled combination of state-of-the-art methods for soil organic matter fractionation into pools directly related to conceptual preservation mechanisms, powerful stable and radioactive isotope techniques, and advanced nuclear magnetic resonance tools. VULCAN will fill major gaps in our knowledge, will make this information widely available to scientists, policy makers, and the general public, and will provide the Fellow with the necessary knowledge, skills, networking, and experience to lead future research projects related to the feedbacks between climate change and terrestrial ecosystems in Europe.

Mots clés : soil organic matter, permafrost, drylands, semi arid soils, isotopes, nuclear magnetic resonance

Participants :
- King Juan Carlos University (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 174495.6 €
- Arizona's Public Universities (Etats-Unis) — Partner, organization partner, Organismes privés (hors enseignement), subvention : 0.0 €
Projet PeTSoC (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2019)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Information Science and Engineering
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Solar energy is one of the most important renewable energy sources of the 21st century. For solar cells, the most important aspects for commercialization are power conversion efficiency and cost which can be combined into a €/W metric. Today, over 90% of the global solar industry is comprised of single-junction crystalline silicon (c-Si) solar cells, however, c-Si solar cells have some limitations. The first is their non-mechanically flexible nature and second, their single-junction limit of efficiency which can be surpassed by multijunction technology. Lead-halide perovskites are generating substantial scientific and industrial interest because they are low-cost, highly efficient and bandgap tunable, key criteria for multijunction solar cells. Furthermore, perovskites can be deposited via thermal co-evaporation meaning that the devices in this project, can be made from start-to-finish entirely from industrially attractive vacuum deposition techniques. Unlike conventional c-Si, perovskites are a thin-film technology, which means they can be made into lightweight and flexible solar cells with a high power-to-weight ratio. Thus, they have additional applications for (1) portable electronic devices including smartphones and displays, (2) vehicles, drones and aircraft, (3) wearable textiles, and more. The project draws from two distinct areas of photovoltaics research, specifically lightweight and flexibility with high-efficiency achieved by multijunction technology, allowing it to compete competitively with crystalline silicon in conventional solar energy generation and niche applications. The experienced researcher will be joining StranksLab to build a strong fundamental photophysical understanding of thermally co-evaporated perovskite layers via state-of-the-art spectroscopy tools to target the development of a lightweight and flexible all-perovskite triple-junction solar cell with an efficiency >30%.

Mots clés : solar cells, photovoltaics, perovskites, multijunctions

Participants :
- University of Cambridge (Royaume-Uni) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 212933.76 €
Projet SolTIME (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2020)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Chemistry
Statut du projet : SIGNED

Solar fuels can be synthesized by integrating electrocatalysts with semiconductors, using sunlight to drive endergonic chemical reactions. Employing molecular electrocatalysts allows the tunability, selectivity, and three-dimensional architectures associated with molecular components to be combined with the solar energy capture and conversion properties of solid-state semiconducting materials. However, there is a lack of understanding of how photo-generated carriers are transported through these systems, disfavouring the rational design of efficient photoelectrocatalytic constructs. This proposal aims to interface copper porphyrins with built-in hydroxyl groups, known catalysts for CO2 reduction, to carbon nitride for photo-promoted generation of highly reduced products from CO2, including methane and ethanol. Catalytic activity and selectivity will be studied by using multi-dimensional approaches for porphyrin immobilization, drawing inspiration from the extended coordination spheres crucial in biological tuning of enzymatic activity. This will be achieved through synthesis of three distinct reaction environments at carbon nitride consisting of: a porphyrin monolayer, a polymer film coordinating the porphyrin, and a 2-D highly ordered covalent-organic framework (COF) composed of the porphyrin. It is expected that these specialised environments will give rise to distinct kinetic responses and product distribution. Existing electrochemical models will be extended to this photoelectrochemical data to investigate the interplay of light flux, substrate and electron diffusion, and catalytic rates, leading to the extrapolation of fundamental principles governing interfacial photo-induced charge transfer at catalytic thin films. Through this project, leadership training, language acquisition, and communication skills will be emphasized, furthering the experienced researcher’s career goals and preparing her for an independent career in solar fuels.

Mots clés : solar fuels, photoelectrochemistry, co2 reduction, catalytic thin films, extended coordination environments, surface chemistry, covalent organic frameworks, molecular catalysts, copper porphyrins

Participants :
- Institut Català d'Investigació Química (Espagne) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Recherche, subvention : 172932.48 €
Projet ForbMod (Horizon 2020, appel à projets 2016)
Action : Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
Panel : Physics
Statut du projet : CLOSED

Solar storms, also known as coronal mass ejections (CMEs), are the strongest drivers of space weather. During planetary impacts, they cause short term decreases in the galactic cosmic ray (GCR) flux, called Forbush decreases (FDs). These depressions are observed in the interplanetary space, at the surface of the Earth and recently also on the Mars’ surface by the Curiosity Rover. A large subset of FDs is caused by interplanetary flux ropes (FRs), which expand during their propagation based on observational studies. Our main goal is to develop and test a new diffusion/expansion FD model which will be able to predict FD amplitude and time-profile caused by the FR passage at a given point in the inner solar system (< 2 AU). The model will be based on the widely accepted approach of the initially empty FR which fills up slowly with particles by perpendicular diffusion, but will be supplemented with the additional mechanism-expansion. The model results will be evaluated using appropriate spacecraft and ground-based measurements at Earth and by the Mars Curiosity Rover. This modeling and multi-spacecraft observational approach will allow testing unanswered hypotheses on the FD properties. The proposed research will be carried out in a 24-months project at the University of Graz, Austria, with secondments at the Space Research Institute of the Austrian Academy of Science in Graz, and at the Department of Extraterrestrial physics at Christian-Albrechts University in Kiel. These institutions are well recognized in the field of CMEs, FR modeling and GCR detectors and offer outstanding expertise and infrastructure needed for the implementation of the project. The project will generate new knowledge on the properties of cosmic ray decreases by solar storms, which is relevant for space weather, human spaceflight and planetary and exoplanetary atmospheres.

Mots clés : forbush decrease, galactic cosmic rays, coronal mass ejections, magnetic flux ropes, solar  terrestrial relations, mars radiation environment

Participants :
- University of Graz (Autriche) — Coordinator, beneficiary, Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire, subvention : 178156.8 €