Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Nanoengineering High-Performance Low-Cost Perovskite Solar Cells Utilising Singlet Fission Materials (SOLAR BEYOND SILICON)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: International Outgoing Fellowships
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-IOF, 2013)
Start date: 2014-10-13
End date: 2017-10-12
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 294219.6
EU funding (EUR): 294219.6
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

This project aims to combine two recent breakthroughs in solution-processed thin-film solar photovoltaics (PVs) to demonstrate a low-cost, stable PV device with an efficiency approaching conventional crystalline silicon devices. The aim will be achieved by integrating singlet fission, a process capable of pushing PV efficiencies beyond conventional limits, with recent exciting perovskite results. The researcher is uniquely suited to this ambitious project, which will engage him with world-leading techniques, collaborations, and transferrable skills and help him to achieve his goal of establishing a leading UK-based device spectroscopy research group. The project comprises an outgoing phase in Prof. Valdimir Bulovic’s Organic & Nanostructured Electronics Group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where their unrivalled expertise in the deposition and nanopatterning of materials will be applied to perovskite/singlet fission devices. This expertise will be transferred back to Prof. Sir Richard Friend’s Optoelectronics (OE) Group at Cambridge University, world-leaders in ultrafast spectroscopy. Device behaviour will be elucidated and performance optimised by studying ultrafast phenomena such as the dynamics and mechanism of charge generation. Such a partnership of high-end nanoengineering and ultrafast spectroscopy is yet to be achieved and is likely to lead to revolutionary breakthroughs. The work will ensure that state-of-the-art expertise not currently available in the European Research Area (ERA) is transferred to the European community. This will create strong international links between the two leading groups, with enormous potential for intellectual property generation and industry involvement through OE Group spin-outs and partners and knowledge transfer from interaction with successful enterprises in the Boston area. This will increase Europe’s competitiveness in the solar energy sector and ensure its energy security and emission targets are reached.

Keywords: solar cells,photovoltaics,perovskites,singlet fission,ultrafast spectroscopy,materials physics,third-generation techniques
Soft Contact Mechanics (SOFT-MECH)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Intra-European Fellowships
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-IEF, 2013)
Start date: 2014-05-01
End date: 2016-07-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 221606.4
EU funding (EUR): 221606.4
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

SOFT-MECH aims to shed light on the contact mechanics of soft materials, i.e. on the interactions between a “soft body” and its environment. This goal is motivated by the large variety of applications involving contact between soft rough bodies, which require an optimized design, and hence accurate knowledge of interfacial phenomena, in terms of stresses, friction and wear. Components of interest include not only “traditional” products such as tires, seals and dampers but also a large variety of soft polymers used in profusion to achieve cost and size reduction, increased efficiency and biodegradability, making this project highly relevant to many new focus areas, such as bioengineering, nanotechnology and “green” technology, a key to the ERA quest for excellence and growth. The use and development of soft materials is partly hindered by the difficulty in accurately predicting their mechanical behavior. Phenomena, such as hyperelasticity, viscoelasticity and porosity, make engineering design complicated and problematic. To address this unresolved issue, the applicant will develop advanced and rigorous numerical methodologies to model soft contact mechanics, accounting for both surface roughness and the presence of different phases (i.e. solid, liquids and gases) at the interface. This will be combined with an extensive experimental validation programme and the use of a range of novel techniques, such as in-contact thermal microscopy and high speed imaging. This challenging proposal is enabled by the unique set of modeling and analytical skills possessed by the applicant in conjunction with the world-leading expertise and facilities available at the Host Institution. The success of this industrially relevant project will produce a step change in the deployment of soft materials, with the consequent enhancement of the European competitiveness in the forthcoming Soft Matter Era and the establishment of the applicant as a research leader in the field.

Keywords: contact mechanics,friction,dissipation,lubrication,wear,viscoelasticity
Assembling molecular components for future quantum devices (LINKQUBITS)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Intra-European Fellowships
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-IEF, 2013)
Start date: 2014-04-01
End date: 2016-03-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 231283.2
EU funding (EUR): 231283.2
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The project proposed herein is based on recent results reported by Winpenny group. In those papers they have shown that can functionalise heterometallic rings, suitable to be used as qubits, for building assemblies with two components relevant to application in quantum information processing (QIP). Assemblies of increasing complexity could be made and ultimately a prototype for quantum simulator for quantum computers. The experience of Jesus Ferrando Soria makes him an ideal scientist to pursue this project as he is an excellent synthetic chemist. He will learn continuous wave and pulsed EPR spectroscopy, thus gaining valuable new skills. The challenge is to find physical systems that could be used in QIP. There have been several proposals to use the quantised spins within molecular magnets for QIP. Recently Santini et al. proposed a promising new way, a route to a quantum simulator. The proposal uses the quantum states of four different molecular components to build a device, where the four molecular components proposed are two distinct qubits and two distinct switches. This creates the chemical challenge of obtaining multiple molecular components that can be connected with control, which also highlights a gap in supramolecular chemistry, where the focus has always been the synthesis of individual polymetallic cages, but linking together multiple different metal complexes has not been achieved. Here we propose a modular design, choosing potential qubits taken from Manchester group work and switches taken from the broader literature, that could act as components. We will then increase complexity, making and studying assemblies where two similar qubits are linked by one switch. We will then move to two dissimilar qubits linked by a single switch, and finally target a 1D-polymer that has the structure required for the quantum simulator. In parallel we will pursue detailed spectroscopic studies of the assemblies to understand the combination of switch and qubit.

Keywords: coordination chemistry,supramolecular chemistry,epr spectroscopy,qubits,switch,link,modular design,quantum simulator,quantum information processing,quantum computer.
Phosphate Processing in Enzymes: Structure, Dynamics and Chemistry (PHOSPHOENZYMQMMM)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Intra-European Fellowships
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-IEF, 2013)
Start date: 2014-11-10
End date: 2016-11-09
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 309235.2
EU funding (EUR): 309235.2
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Phosphate ester hydrolysis is one of the most important classes of chemical reactions in biology, playing a central role in nucleic acid processing, energy transduction, and signalling. Despite the importance of this ubiquitous reaction, the mechanistic details of phosphate ester cleavage remain obscure due to the complex nature of the reaction. In addition, there is an active debate concerning possible reaction intermediates. Here we aim to clarify the molecular basis of this enzymatic mechanism by studying P-O bond cleavage by Nucleoside Triphosphate (NTP) - processing enzymes and by the HIV-RT system. Hydrolysis of NTP represents a biochemical reaction essential in most processes of life: energy storage and transfer, replication of the genetic material, translation, regulation, etc. We will clarify the roles of metal ions in NTP enzymes and the ubiquitous arginine finger-type interaction occurring during the catalytic process. Phosphate hydrolysis is also catalysed by the HIV-RT enzyme. HIV-RT is a main drug target for AIDS disease. Unfortunately, current HIV drugs cannot cure the disease, forcing patients to remain on viral suppressant medications indefinitely. The major emerging problem with the current HIV viral drugs is the acquired drug resistance. To combat this problem, it is essential to design new drugs that target alternative functions and binding sites. More than half of the current HIV drugs target the HIV-RT reverse transcriptase function. Nevertheless, HIV-RT also carries out an RNase H function that is essential to viral replication. Here, we aim to obtain detailed information on the conformational flexibility and tautomerism of the inhibitors and to find the link between these properties and the potency and selectivity of the RNase function inhibitors. By exploring the flexibility of the inhibitors as well as mutations in the protein, we also aim to identify how drug resistant mutants may emerge as a result of drug therapies.

Keywords: phosphate hydrolysis,enzyme catalysis,hiv-rt,rnase h,qm/mm,nmr
Gauge/gravity duality and its applications to condensed matter physics (GGRAVDCMPSOTON)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Intra-European Fellowships
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-IEF, 2013)
Start date: 2014-10-01
End date: 2016-09-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 231283.2
EU funding (EUR): 231283.2
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The gauge/gravity duality conjecture asserts an equivalence between theories of gravity on a curved space and ordinary quantum field theories defined on the boundary of such spaces. This duality has become a powerful tool to study strongly interacting systems by use of a conjectured dual weakly coupled string/gravitational theory, allowing new computations that go beyond the standard perturbative techniques of quantum field theories. The proposed projects focus on applying the gauge/gravity duality to more realistic condensed matter systems. In particular, the following topics will be studied: a) Constructing black hole solutions with anisotropy and studying their thermodynamics and transport coefficients; b) Constructing black hole solutions in four-dimensional higher derivative gravity and realizing the Coleman-Mermin-Wagner theorem; c) Modeling the holographic superconductor/insulator phase transition with inhomogeneity. The proposed projects will deepen our understanding on gauge/gravity duality itself and will provide a more precise description on realistic condensed matter systems.

Keywords: gauge/gravity duality,ads/cft correspondence,ads/cmt
A Multifunctional AgRiculture for SUstainable PerI-urban Areas (MARSUPIA)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: International Outgoing Fellowships
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: France
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-IOF, 2013)
Start date: 2014-05-01
End date: 2017-04-30
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 258088.5
EU funding (EUR): 258088.5
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Most European and Canadian metropolitan areas are expanding over rural land (i.e. urban sprawl). The loss of prime agricultural land and the proximity of farms to urban land uses has motivated the implementation of land use regulations (zoning). French zoning (decentralized and easily revisable) and Canadian zoning (centralized and strict) influence farmers' perceptions of land access uncertainty. Consequently farmers are assumed to make different investment, production, and marketing decisions depending on their policy context. The MARSUPIA project aims at assessing the impact of land use zoning policies on farmers' investment, production, and marketing decisions, and thus on the supply of local food and agricultural amenities in peri-urban areas. To answer this question, a comparative analysis of the impact of French and Canadian zoning policies is implemented. The methodology is based on a mix of qualitative methods (mental mapping with focus groups) and quantitative methods (econometric analyses using farm individual data). Additionally, recent sampling methods are implemented in order to provide theoretical findings about their validity (dosage methods) as well as to test the robustness of results. This project is a perfect springboard for the principal investigator (PI). This is the opportunity to strengthen his network at UT1 and UoG where he worked as a PhD student and a Visiting Scholar, respectively. He will also acquire new skills: research skills (methodological and theoretical), technical skills (use of new software), language skills (English), and training skills (supervision of master students). Moreover, the publication of research papers in international reviews and recommendations for decision-makers provides an opportunity to improve the visibility of PI's research. Finally, this project is a springboard for future collaborations. Discussions have already begun for implementing the PI's methodology in China to get a third set of results.

Keywords: economy,agroeconomy,agriculture,sustainable development,urban sprawl,land use,zoning policy,greenbelt,farm adaptation,farmers' decisions,france,canada,qualitative and quantitative methods
USEFUL SUPERCONVERGENCE EXTRACTION FOR FILTERING OF UNDERRESOLVED SOLUTIONS (USEFUL)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: International Incoming Fellowships
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-IIF, 2013)
Start date: 2014-09-01
End date: 2016-08-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 231283.2
EU funding (EUR): 231283.2
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The objectives of this proposal include: to investigate how various superconvergent techniques modify the approximation coefficients, and further how this modification changes the spectrum analysis; to reduce the dissipation resulted from the filtering by addressing SIAC filtering and wave number resolution; to apply the filtering techniques for nonlinear equations and LES simulations. In order to address these objectives, the Fellow and the Host have together identified the key tasks that need to be undertaken in order to make significant steps in the research area of LES filtering. We note that this combines the joint talents of the Fellow and the Host.

Keywords: siac filtering,superconvergence,hyperbolic equations,les modeling,discontinuous galerkin
Indirect Search for Dark Matter Using the VERITAS Telescope Array (UCDVERITAS)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Intra-European Fellowships
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: Ireland
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-IEF, 2013)
Start date: 2015-02-09
End date: 2017-02-08
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 191359.8
EU funding (EUR): 191359.8
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Observations of the motions of stars and galaxies in large-scale structures have revealed that most (>80%) of the matter in the Universe is invisible. The nature of the “dark matter” is one of the outstanding puzzles in modern physics and experiments are underway to detect and characterize it. There are three main experimental approaches: direct detection of dark matter particles arriving from space, generation and detection of dark matter particles in particle accelerators, and indirect detection via observation of the gamma rays produced when dark matter particles decay or self-annihilate. Such gamma rays would travel from sites of dark matter density in the universe, and be observable on Earth with gamma-ray telescopes. My research proposal is to utilize very-high-energy (VHE) gamma-ray observations of candidate astrophysical dark matter sites to measure or constrain the dark matter annihilation rate, and to statistically combine the results with those from collider and other VHE telescope searches. The research will utilize VERITAS, one of the leading VHE gamma-ray observatories currently in operation, and will be conducted under the supervision of Dr. John Quinn at University College Dublin. A key component of the research will be to investigate improved analysis techniques to enhance the gamma-ray selection and background rejection image analysis techniques employed in the analysis of VERITAS data. I developed expertise with these methods during my graduate and post-doctoral work in particle physics, and am thus uniquely positioned to adapt and refine such techniques for use in astrophysics. I will also combine gamma-ray annihilation rate limits with complementary measurements from other telescopes and collider experiments to produce significantly improved constraints on dark matter. This project is highly interdisciplinary, bringing together particle physics and astrophysics with image processing, multivariate data analysis and statistical techniques.

Keywords: dark matter,gamma rays
Low-cost paper-based microfluidic devices for the detection of waterborne pathogens (ENVIRO)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: International Outgoing Fellowships
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-IOF, 2013)
Start date: 2014-06-01
End date: 2017-11-29
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 282109.2
EU funding (EUR): 282109.2
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The scientific aim of enVIRO is to develop novel low-cost paper-based microfluidic systems for the detection of waterborne pathogens. Norovirus and E. coli will be the exemplar targets as they are the primary agents of global gastrointestinal infections caused by contaminated drinking and bathing water. Three-dimensional microfluidic paper analytical devices (µPADs) will be implemented with isothermal nucleic acid amplification technology (INAAT) for sensitive quantitation of pathogens in environmental samples. This will only be possible by joining the expertise in molecular biology and nanotechnology at the University of Southampton (UoS) with the pioneering excellence in paper-based microfluidics at the group of the inventor of the field, George Whitesides, at Harvard University (HU). The enVIRO project will be primarily a research-driven training programme with a 24-month outgoing period spent at HU, for development of novel prototype 3D INAAT µPADs for environmental samples, and a 12-month re-integration phase at UoS in ERA, for knowledge dissemination and prototype implementation that addresses increasing global and European needs in tackling water contamination and infection issues.

Keywords: waterborne pathogens,paper-basedmicrofluidics,norovirus,e. coli,gastroenteritis,water contamination,isothermal nucleic acid amplification technologies
New uses for X-ray Tomography in natural building stones: characterization, pathologies and restoration of historical and recent roofing slates (TOMOSLATE)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Intra-European Fellowships
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: Belgium
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-IEF, 2013)
Start date: 2015-01-01
End date: 2016-12-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 235000.0
EU funding (EUR): 235000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Europe is nowadays the world’s leading producer and consumer of roofing slate. Slate quarries are found in most European countries. However, despite their importance as a building stone, roofing slates are a relatively unexamined material. In comparison with other building stones, there is a lack of research and scientific publications on roofing slates. Applying expertise in X-ray micro-Computed Tomography (MCT) for the study of roofing slates will make it possible to determine several unresolved issues concerning these rocks: Evolution of mechanical behaviour during freeze-thaw cycles of slate tiles. From an engineering perspective, this fact is crucial when deciding which type of slate should be used in a building, especially in areas with high temperature oscillation. Loss of fissility of slate blocks during the production process under dry conditions. This phenomenon forces the blocks to be submerged in water during the production process, severely inconveniencing producers. Evolution of mineral changes during weathering cycles. Observing the evolution of these minerals during weathering cycles will provide a clear understanding of how they really affect the integrity of the slate, and which concentrations should be considered dangerous. Technological characterization of roofing slate and other rocks suitable for roofing. By characterizing slates with MCT it will be possible to obtain a 3D representation of the optimum microscopic structure of a roofing slate. Development of a methodology to determine the origin of historical slate tiles, and, should they need to be replaced, for selecting the most appropriate type of replacement slate. This is very important, since frequently the original quarries are exhausted, forcing restorers to use foreign slates. From an economic and social perspective, the results of the research will help to reactivate the economy of European slate-producing areas, due to the added value given to their slates.

Keywords: roofing slate,x-ray tomography,x-ray fluorescence,weathering tests,durability