Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-erc-participations-et-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Projet ERC : APERITIF (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Université de Valence — Pays : Espagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

Perovskite semiconductors are promising for photovoltaics with a potentially very large market. Industrial compatible deposition processes that do not employ solvents are unavailable currently. We have developed a new deposition process, that is completely solvent free, compatible with a wide range of perovskite precursors, operates at moderate vacuum levels and leads to high quality films with crystal grains in the order of 500 nm. In the APERITIF project we aim to attract industrial sponsors, both equipment manufacturers and photovoltaic module producers to license this novel process and use it to build a larger scale prototype and implement it for larger area solar cells. To do this we will protect this process and the novel perovskite compositions and subsequent solar cells by filing patents. In view of the superior perovskite film quality we expect to obtain more efficient and stable photovoltaic devices. As the processing method is compatible with continuous operation it allows for high speed production, something that is urgently needed to address the enormous growth scenarios of photovoltaic panels
Projet ERC : 2D4H2 (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Université de Valence — Pays : Espagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

The baseline technology for green H2 production is the water-electrolysis (WE). However, roughly 96% of the H2 produced today is from fossil fuels, with the remaining 4% produced through water electrolysis , due to the still-high costs, and lower performance of current electrolysers compared with other production processes not affected by the use of toxic or critical raw materials (CRM). Therefore, there is a need of boosting the development of highly active and efficient catalysts to turn green hydrogen into a viable solution to decarbonise different sectors and to meet the ambitious goals settled in the Hydrogen Strategy.  This project proposes an advanced Anion Exchange Membrane Water Electrolyser (AEMWE) stack as a critical milestone to translate the highly promising results coming from the ground-breaking research conducted during the ERC-StG awarded to Dr G. Abellán, into a marketable innovation. The AEMWE stack novelty relies on non-toxic CRM-free breakthrough novel electrodes (anodes) made of two-dimensional (2D) nickel-iron layered double hydroxide materials (2D NiFe-LDHs) that have shown an outstanding catalytic behaviour. Using this electrocatalytic material will allow overcoming the main challenges of WE to produce green H2.  The activities to be undertaken under the 2D4H2 project, are aimed to prepare the translation of the 2D NiFe-LDHs electrocatalytic materials into an AEMWE stack as a precursor of a future fully operational 0.5kW electrolyser. For this purpose, the necessary optimisation and characterisation of the electrocatalyst to enable the testing and validation in a pilot plant of the single unit cell, and the AEMWE stack prototype, will be carried out together with the elaboration of an integrated strategy for effectively managing the knowledge generated during the project, including clarifying the IPR position, and an exploitation strategy involving potential stakeholders in order to evolve the idea further towards exploitation.
Projet ERC : EMPATIC (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : École polytechnique de Turin — Pays : Italie — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

Cardiovascular diseases are the major cause of mortality worldwide, making the demand for new therapies an urgent need. Additionally, unexpected cardiac adverse effects are the leading causes of discontinuation of clinical trials and withdrawal of drugs from the market. Such issues could be addressed by relevant in vitro human cardiac tissue models reproducing in vivo-like pharmacological response. However, most in vitro cardiac tissue models developed so far have been limited by complex design to enhance cardiomyocyte maturation, and poor ability to provide real-time functional assessment, making them poorly robust, reproducible, scalable and user-friendly. In EMPATIC I will overcome such limitations, through synergistic exploitation of biochemical and biophysical stimuli for cardiomyocyte phenotype maturation, studied in ERC project BIORECAR (772168). EMPATIC will provide a novel user-friendly and versatile multi-well plate platform for the in vitro modeling of mature functional human cardiac tissues and the non-invasive label-free monitoring of electrophysiological properties. EMPATIC platform will combine: (i) tailor-designed multi-well components, imparting biochemical and biophysical cues to in vitro cultured cells, and (ii) bioelectronic components enabling controlled electrical stimulation (ES) and biosensing. Collaboration with major experts in bioelectronics, cardiac regenerative medicine and electrophysiology, and companies will support EMPATIC innovation. My previous experience as coordinator of basic and applied research projects and co-founder of academic spin-off companies, and the entrepreneurship experience of 50% of EMPATIC team will support the process of technology development and validation.

Mots-clés : cardiac tissue models,in vitro testing,multi well platforms
Projet ERC : STELLAR (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : École polytechnique de Turin — Pays : Italie — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

STELLAR introduces a groundbreaking approach to early cancer detection, leveraging surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) and artificial intelligence (AI) to analyse microRNAs (miRNAs) in liquid biopsies. This innovative technology aims to revolutionize cancer screening by offering a non-invasive, cost-effective, and highly accurate method for identifying cancer-specific miRNA biomarkers. STELLAR's core innovation lies in its ability to detect and discriminate between normal and mutated miRNAs with exceptional accuracy, even at the level of single nucleotide polymorphisms, without the need for expensive and complex sequencing technologies. The project encompasses the development of a comprehensive system, including a novel miRNA isolation and enrichment method, a SERS-based detection platform utilizing silver nanoparticle-enhanced substrates, and an AI algorithm for data analysis. This integrated approach promises to overcome current limitations in miRNA-based cancer diagnostics, such as high costs, lengthy processing times, and the need for specialized equipment and personnel. STELLAR aims to progress from TRL 2/3 to TRL 4/5, validating the technology with clinical samples and establishing a clear path toward commercialization. The project's multifaceted strategy includes rigorous technical development, IP protection, regulatory planning, and market analysis. The project's success could significantly impact early cancer detection rates, improving patient outcomes and reducing healthcare costs. STELLAR's approach to combining SERS technology with AI-driven analysis opens new avenues for personalized medicine and could set new standards for AI-integrated medical devices. As the project progresses, it will explore various commercialization pathways, including the potential creation of a spin-out company or licensing agreements, with the goal of bringing this transformative technology to market and making a substantial impact on global health.

Mots-clés : liquid biopsy,mirna,early cancer detection,surface enhanced raman spectroscopy,artificial intelligence,personalized medicine
Projet ERC : HYSENS (Horizon Europe, appel 2025, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : École polytechnique de Turin — Pays : Italie — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

Hypertension and cardiovascular diseases remain major global health challenges, yet current blood pressure (BP) monitors are bulky and provide only intermittent readings. The HYSENS project seeks to revolutionize wearable BP monitoring by developing advanced piezoresistive sensors based on hybrid hydrogels. Our innovative hydrogels integrate functional 2D nanomaterials (e.g., MoS2) and conductive polymers (e.g., polyaniline) into a biocompatible matrix, achieving high sensitivity, excellent durability, and a linear response within the physiological pressure range. HYSENS targets two key exploitable results: a battery-free NFC-based sensor for on-demand measurements and a LoRa-enabled device for continuous, remote monitoring. The NFC system capitalizes on energy harvesting from NFC interrogation, minimizing motion artifacts by capturing controlled, brief readings. In contrast, the LoRa-based device employs adaptive signal processing and power management strategies to ensure accurate, real-time monitoring even during patient movement. Extensive research will optimize hydrogel synthesis, nanomaterial anchoring, and electrical calibration, while rigorous biocompatibility and stability tests will ensure safe, long-term use on the skin. By bridging lab-scale innovation and real-world application, HYSENS offers a scalable, eco-friendly, and cost-effective solution that promises to transform personalized healthcare and reduce the burden of cardiovascular diseases. Collaboration with industry partners such as Dropper Srl and STMicroelectronics will further support commercialization through strategic regulatory and market pathways.
Projet ERC : Syst-Onco-Herpes (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Fondazione policlinico sant'orsola onlus — Pays : Italie — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : Fondazione Policlinico Sant'Orsola
Type d'entité : Autres
Financement ERC de l'entité : 125000.0 €

Solid tumors, in particular metastatic ones, represent unmet clinical needs and the second cause of death worldwide. Oncolytic viruses (OVs) kill tumors and spare normal cells. They are a distinct class of novel anti-cancer agents, frequently administered by intratumoral injection. A Holy Grail in the innovation of OVs is the possibility to administer them by systemic, e.g. intravenous injection, so that in the human body OVs search for metastases and scavenge them. The systemic delivery of OVs tackles societal challenges as it meets the needs of metastatic patients, those who die of cancer and need innovative therapies most. The Principal Investigator has generated a family of innovative oncolytic herpesviruses (ReHVs) which specifically target HER2-positive tumors (HER2-ReHVs). In preclinical studies HER2-ReHVs exhibit high specificity for HER2-positive cancers, high anti-tumor efficacy also against metastatic tumors, vaccinate against metastatic-like tumors, and are highly safe. These properties position ReHVs for systemic delivery. The ReHV technology is protected by a portfolio of patents. The objectives of this Proposal are twofold. Firstly, to improve the systemic delivery of ReHVs by identifying the obstacles that constrain such administration, to develop novel strategies to overcome them, including high-risk high-gain modifications that make ReHVs better suited for the systemic delivery. Secondly, to carry out initiatives for the technological transfer, i.e. development and commercialization of ReHVs. These include the detailed planning of activities to take ReHVs to the authorization for a First-in-Human clinical experimentation, to develop a business plan and carry out OV market analysis and search for investors. By combining the Development and commercialization initiatives with the technological advancements, this POC is expected to achieve the broader objective of progressing ReHVs into clinical experimentation and ultimately to bring them to patients
Projet ERC : Roll-E (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Université de Valence — Pays : Espagne — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

Hydrogen is expected to be essential in achieving EU objectives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. However, while water electrolysis (WE) efficiency can be comparable to fossil fuels, hydrogen produced by WE via renewable or low-carbon energy (green hydrogen) only accounts for 4% of the global hydrogen supply, mainly due to the still-high costs and lower performance of current electrolysers, as a result of the sluggish kinetics and the high overpotentials needed for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER), which remains the bottleneck of this technology. In this regard, the electrodes' capital costs – the core component of the AEMWE electrolyser – can be reduced by developing more performing and stable catalyst layers through advanced manufacturing techniques to meet industry volume demand.  In this respect, this project aims to obtain high-performance self-supported electrodes through a ground-breaking wet growth roll-to-roll process. Our value proposition focuses on offering the AEMWE electrolyser manufacturing industry the high-quality of self-supported electrodes that improve electrolyser performance and reliability, together with the ease of industrialisation provided by the well-established roll-to-roll technology, thus avoiding the high temperature and pressure conditions and corrosive environments that are currently necessary for the batch-to-batch synthesis of self-supported electrodes, while reducing costs, allowing AEMWE to reach large-scale applications and accelerate its commercialisation.  To achieve this, the project will aim to develop a proof of concept of advanced mass-produced self-supported layered double hydroxide (LDH) electrodes for AEMWE. The performance and stability of these electrodes will be validated in a relevant environment, which is a critical milestone in translating the highly promising results of the research conducted during the ERC-StG awarded to Dr G. Abellán into a marketable innovation.
Projet ERC : enLIGHT (Horizon Europe, appel 2025, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : École normale supérieure de Pise — Pays : Italie — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 115000.0 €

Nanomedicine has the potential to revolutionize healthcare by enabling targeted drug delivery, reducing side effects, and improving treatment efficacy. However, the field faces a critical bottleneck: the lack of efficient, non-invasive analytical tools to assess drug encapsulation, stability, and release dynamics in nanoformulations. Current techniques rely on destructive, time-consuming methods, limiting their applicability in formulation development and quality control. enLIGHT introduces a breakthrough approach—a patented, label-free fluorescence lifetime-based screening technology that provides real-time, quantitative insights into the physical state of encapsulated drugs. By leveraging exploitation of the intrinsic luminescence of drugs and a phasor-based, fit-free and purely graphical analysis, enLIGHT eliminates the need for fluorescent labeling or complex sample preparation, offering a rapid, cost-effective, and non-destructive alternative to traditional characterization techniques. Validated in laboratory settings, enLIGHT has already revealed unexpected drug behaviors in FDA-approved nanomedicines, demonstrating its ability to uncover hidden formulation instabilities. This Proof of Concept project aims to move enLIGHT from a complex lab setup to a compact, user-friendly device for pharmaceutical and research laboratories. By refining the prototype and validating its performance across diverse nanoformulations, the project will establish enLIGHT as an indispensable tool in nanomedicine analytics. With its potential to enhance drug development pipelines, reduce formulation failures, and streamline regulatory approval processes, enLIGHT represents a transformative innovation for the pharmaceutical industry—ensuring more stable, effective, and safer nanomedicines for the future.
Projet ERC : UNMASK (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Université nouvelle de Lisbonne — Pays : Portugal — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UNL
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 115420.0 €

Parkinson´s disease (PD) is a progressive, chronic, and debilitating neurodegenerative disease for which there is no cure and no diagnostic test available. About 10 million people live with PD worldwide (1.2 million in Europe), and this number is expected to double by 2030 due to the aging population. PD has a high social and economic burden, and there is the need to improve PD timely detection and diagnosis, especially in young people. UNMASK aims to validate the technological and business feasibility of the olfaction-inspired technology developed in the ERC Starting Grant SCENT by establishing the proof-of-concept for the non-invasive and fast PD diagnostics. To accomplish this, we will approach the project from both Technical and Business perspectives, with a perfect synergy between the research and business teams, and a close contact with clinical collaborators and stakeholders.
Projet ERC : ENSURE (Horizon Europe, appel 2022, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Université nouvelle de Lisbonne — Pays : Portugal — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : UNL
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 115000.0 €

Bladder cancer is the most common malignancy of the urinary tract with 573,000 new cases and 213,000 deaths in 2020 worldwide and affecting more men than women in a 4:1 ratio. Bladder cancer has the highest lifetime treatment costs per patient of all cancers, which is mainly attributed to the intensive follow-up procedures of patients after diagnostics and surgery. Follow-up is made recurring to extremely invasive and low-patient compliant tests. ENSURE aims to validate the technological and business feasibility of the electronic nose technology developed in the ERC Starting Grant SCENT by establishing the proof-of-concept for the non-invasive follow-up of bladder cancer patients. To accomplish this, we will approach the project from both Technical and Business perspectives, with a perfect synergy between the research and business teams, and a close contact with clinical collaborators and stakeholders.
Projet ERC : SOFTINVADERS (Horizon Europe, appel 2024, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : École supérieure Sainte-Anne de Pise — Pays : Italie — Rôle : PI
Type d'entité : Enseignement supérieur ou secondaire
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

SOFTINVADERS aims at advancing the technology readiness of the microrobots prototypes developed in the ERC-funded project CELLOIDS, paving the way to their future clinical translation. In CELLOIDS, we have developed the first ultra-soft microrobots and observed that they can move through gaps narrower than their size under magnetic actuation. The microrobots have a cell-like body consisting of a Giant Unilamellar Vesicle – an aqueous liquid interior enclosed by a nanometres-thin membrane made of a phospholipid bilayer. This allows them to deform substantially and even form thin protrusions, squeezing through narrow gaps and between obstacles. Such ultra-soft microrobots have the potential to traverse body tissues, mimicking the interstitial migration of leukocytes. SOFTINVADERS will challenge our microrobots with the daunting task of penetrating a solid tumour. This could open new opportunities for administering anti-cancer therapeutics in situ. The translation from research towards innovation will be achieved by addressing three main objectives: (i) enhancing the capabilities and magnetic actuation of our microrobots to make them suited to tumour infiltration; (ii) developing realistic in-vitro tumour models for the validation of microrobots; (iii) establishing a research collaboration with a clinical partner to guide the design of anti-cancer ultra-soft microrobots and define an innovation strategy. If successful, SOFTINVADERS will provide a preliminary validation of tumour infiltration by synthetic magnetic microrobots. This will represent the first innovation step towards the realisation of microrobots-enabled in-situ administration of anti-cancer therapies, potentially leading to improved therapeutic outcomes and better life quality for millions of patients worldwide.
Projet ERC : GradeSync (Horizon Europe, appel 2023, Proof of concept grants)
Entité participante : Helmholtz Center for Information Security — Pays : Allemagne — Rôle : PI
Acronyme de l'entité : CISPA
Type d'entité : Recherche
Financement ERC de l'entité : 150000.0 €

In large distributed computing systems there is a big performance advantage when all communication can be carried out synchronously. Current synchronization techniques result in long communication latencies as the systems scale up in size and operating frequency. We identify two key application areas in which this is an immediate and pressing challenge. 1. Large Networks-on-Chip (NoCs) do not operate synchronously, despite the relative ease of design and low-latency communication this would offer. 2. Despite issues of security and availability, current cellphone networks rely on Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) such as GPS to obtain tightly synchronized time.  We propose the application of Gradient Clock Synchronization (GCS) as a novel clock synchronization method for these applications. GCS minimizes the time offset between close-by parts of the system. This results in much smaller offsets between such parts than standard techniques that aim at minimizing the maximum global offset only. Given that in the above application settings, it is the offset between close-by parts that matters, this enables us to achieve large improvements in performance. In particular, we can eliminate the issues faced by NoC designs and cellphone networks that we pointed out above.  The main objectives of the proposed PoC project itself can be stated as follows. - Development, fabrication, and evaluation of an ASIC demonstrator for SoC and NoC clocking. - Development and evaluation of a secure wireless implementation of the GCS algorithm. - Patent protection of the generated intellectual property. - Finding industrial pilot partners for development of products in follow-up projects.