Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Electrochemically Programmable Biochemical Networks for Animate Materials (eBioNetAniMat)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Synthetic Chemistry and Materials
Panel description: New materials and new synthetic approaches, structure -properties relations, solid state chemistry, molecular architecture, organic chemistry
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call: ERC STARTING GRANTS (ERC-2024-STG, 2024)
Start date: 2024-12-01
End date: 2029-11-30
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1776727.5
EU funding (EUR): 1776727.5
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Life’s biological materials are animate materials, capable of adapting to their surroundings via actively changing in response to the environment. A key distinguishing feature of animate materials is their ability to autonomously make decisions over how to respond. An example of an animate material is your skin: on cold days the hairs on your skin rise to trap warm air without your conscious thought. The ability of living materials to make decisions arises from biochemical reaction networks (e.g. protein signalling) in the material. The networks process environmental information and decide how to adapt the material in response. Artificial animate materials promise to be superior for many applications (e.g. soft robots, MedTech) compared to their inert counterparts as their decision-making abilities will enable them to leverage advantageous events into better outcomes and limit the damage from disadvantageous ones. However, currently, there is not a well-established route to fabricate artificial animate materials. eBioNetAniMat charts a pathway to a new generation of electrochemically programmable artificial animate materials that act as soft actuators capable of autonomously making decisions about their movement. Novel, protein-based chemical reaction networks integrated into the actuators will process electrochemical stimuli and make decisions over how to generate chemo-mechanical motion, e.g. peristalsis, rotation. I will develop a method for electrochemically controlling protein-activity and use this to construct a series of novel, electrochemically programmable protein networks of increasing complexity. I will develop a new method for electrochemical fabrication of patterned hydrogels with new protein redox-binding tools. Finally, I will unite the new protein networks and gels together to make novel artificial animate actuators, that will be biocompatible, integrable with electronic devices and have potentially transformative impacts in MedTech + soft robots.

Keywords: systems chemistry,chemical reaction networks,reaction kinetics,hydrogels,actuators,chemo mechanical motion
Targeting peripheral nerves: a method for therapeutic modulation of inflammatory disease with non-invasive temporal interference (TREATMENT)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Proof of concept grants
Action type: ERC actions
Countries involved: Czechia
Call: ERC PROOF OF CONCEPT GRANTS2 (ERC-2022-POC2, 2022)
Start date: 2023-04-01
End date: 2024-09-30
Duration (months): 18.0
Total project cost (EUR): 150000.0
EU funding (EUR): 150000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Excessive inflammation underlies the development of inflammatory diseases, e.g. Rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn's Disease, inflammatory bowel disease, and cardiovascular disease - the most common cause of death in the world. Human physiology is controlled by defined molecular mechanisms, commonly controlled by specific target nerves and their associated reflexes which optimize function – for example molecular mechanisms regulating inflammation. Harnessing the power of the inherent nerve reflexes which are evolutionarily adapted to regulate specific molecular mechanisms holds promise to overcome many of the drawbacks intrinsic to current drug therapies. This approach, designated “bioelectronic medicine”, presents a radically improved way to both treat and better understand disease – with increased adaptability and precision. The vagus nerve, as shown by the team in this project and other groups, plays a key role in regulating key pro-inflammatory cytokines, pro-resolving mediators, and controls inflammation. However, specific targeting of the vagus nerve has required neurosurgical implantation of a pacemaker-like stimulator device with a control unit, a connecting cable, and an electrode implanted at depth. The requirement for highly specialized surgery significantly limits the usefulness and possibilities for implementation of nerve stimulation in treatment of inflammation. Surgery and device implantation also carries risks for permanent tissue damage, local inflammation, infection, and other potentially serious complications. TREATMENT will generate a precise, non-invasive nerve stimulator that uses Temporal Interference in an ultra-thin form factor (enabling patch-based applications) that will (i) target one nerve of interest and avoid off-target stimulation, (ii) avoid surgery, (iii) simplify effective use and (iv) enable bioelectronic medicine.
LIQuid-crystal enabled Universal Optical Reconfigurable Integrated Circuit Engineering (LIQUORICE)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Proof of concept grants
Action type: ERC actions
Countries involved: Belgium
Call: ERC PROOF OF CONCEPT GRANTS1 (ERC-2022-POC1, 2022)
Start date: 2022-07-01
End date: 2023-12-31
Duration (months): 18.0
Total project cost (EUR): 150000.0
EU funding (EUR): 150000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

In LIQUORICE we will build an operational proof-of-concept of a general-purpose programmable photonic processor. This processor is intended to provide the photonics community with a flexible rapid prototyping technology, similar in use as an electronic FPGA, to stimulate new innovation and accelerate the adoption of photonic chip technology in diverse applications, beyond the traditional photonics markets of telecom and datacom. In particular, we want to test this new photonic chip for use in programmable photonic test & measurement equipment. This is an application space where the chip’s flexibility is exceptionally useful, and which we have identified as an accessible beachhead market. Generic programmable circuits consist of a large mesh of optical waveguides connected together by electrically controlled phase shifters and tunable couplers. The LiqUORICE proof of concept will address a key challenge with these large-scale circuits: the difficulty of addressing thousands of electro-optic actuators. We approach this problem by using a liquid-crystal-on-silicon (LCOS) microdisplay backplane on which we bond our photonic waveguide circuits. The LCOS driver can address the liquid crystal underneath the waveguides in a granular way, controlling the flow of light on the chip. This will also give us a direct software interface (as a display) through which we can configure the chip for optical routing and wavelength filtering. These basic functions will then be used to implement common optical measurement routines such as an optical spectrum analyzer, or an autocorrelator, and tested in the lab. As part of LiqUORICE, we will further look into the exploitation potential of the technology. Specifically, we will evaluate the viability of a spin-off company, with the long-term ambition to become a viable alternative to custom photonic chips for emerging photonics markets.
Hylomorphism in a Globalizing World: Scholastic Debates on the Ontology of Nature Across Europe, China, and New Spain (HYLOGLOB)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Postdoctoral Fellowships
Action type: Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions
Panel: Social Sciences and Humanities
Countries involved: Portugal,Belgium,China
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2022 (HORIZON-MSCA-2022-PF-01, 2022)
Start date: 2023-10-01
End date: 2025-09-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 156778.56
EU funding (EUR): 156778.56
Participants: 3
Project status: CLOSED

HYLOGLOB aims to reconstruct a long-neglected yet crucial debate among Scholastic philosophers on the ontological constitution of natural bodies. This debate took place in Europe during the 16th c., but its consequences had a global, cross-cultural impact. In their struggle to find a balance among opposite claims about matter, form, and the elements, 16th-c. Scholastic philosophers produced influential ontologies of nature. Their theories, in turn, became the lenses through which European thinkers in China and New Spain engaged with metaphysical and cosmological doctrines that were completely alien to them. The reconstruction of the 16th-c. Scholastic debate on the constitution of natural substances is key to understand the processes of philosophical accommodation and reinterpretation of non-European systems of thoughts that took place in early modern Asia and America. By using a multi-levelled methodology, HYLOGLOB will reconstruct the Scholastic debate on the ontology of nature and its global impact. On the one hand, it will analyse how historical actors addressed apparently unsolvable questions on prime matter, substantial forms, and the elements. On the other, it will assess how these theories were used as influential interpretative tools to grasp sophisticated metaphysical doctrines that utterly diverged from the European tradition. HYLOGLOB’s results will produce, for the first time, a thorough, comprehensive understanding of how 16th-c. thinkers envisioned the constitution of the physical world. It will provide meaningful insights on the tensions between metaphysical and physical considerations of nature, the Jesuits materialistic interpretations of Chinese philosophy, and the foundation of an independent philosophical tradition in New Spain. At the crossroad of different traditions and disciplines, HYLOGLOB will contribute to foster a new, more nuanced understanding of a central aspect of the constitution of European identity in a globalising world.

Keywords: hylomorphism second scholasticism medieval metaphysics medieval natural philosophy
Nano-Technology Enabled Repositioning of Cannabinoids for Treating NAFLD (NANOFLD)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Proof of concept grants
Action type: ERC actions
Countries involved: Israel
Call: ERC PROOF OF CONCEPT GRANTS2 (ERC-2022-POC2, 2022)
Start date: 2022-11-01
End date: 2024-04-30
Duration (months): 18.0
Total project cost (EUR): 150000.0
EU funding (EUR): 150000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Obesity is a catalyst for numerous conditions; the most notable is non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), for which currently no drug therapy has been approved by the FDA and EMA for its treatment. The endocannabinoid (eCB) system triggers the development of obesity and its related comorbidities, specifically NAFLD. eCBs, via activating the cannabinoid-1 receptors (CB1Rs) in the liver, increase hepatic glucose production, insulin resistance, and de novo lipogenesis, and decrease fatty acid oxidation. Accordingly, globally-acting CB1R blockers improve these parameters both in rodents and humans. However, owing to their neuropsychiatric side effects, they were withdrawn from the market and are no longer available for clinical use. NANOFLD aims to revive their clinical development and testing by utilizing an innovative nanometric drug delivery system for the hepatic targeting of globally-acting CB1R blockers for treating NAFLD. In the framework of my ERC-StG grant, CaNanoBinoids, my team successfully encapsulated the first-in-class CB1R blocker, rimonabant, in nanoparticles (NPs), tested their stability, efficacy, and potency, and demonstrated their therapeutic potential in ameliorating NAFLD, insulin resistance, and dyslipidemia in mice. To further translate our findings into clinical practice, the present PoC application builds on and expands this avenue of research by achieving several necessary steps including biodistribution, hepatic cellular fate, and PK studies of our novel nanometric drug delivery system. Importantly, we have secured the IP, conducted a specific market assessment, targeted regulatory constraints, implemented a business development plan, consulted with professionals in the field, and developed contacts with industry. When this project is completed, we expect to have introduced a unique innovation to treat NAFLD and its metabolic abnormalities, further promoting the idea to clinically test CB1R blockers encapsulated in NPs against NAFLD.
THE SOIL BIODIVERSITY AND FUNCTIONALITY OF MEDITERRANEAN OLIVE GROVES: A HOLISTIC ANALYSIS OF THE INFLUENCE OF LAND MANAGEMENT ON OLIVE OIL QUALITY AND SAFETY (SOIL O-LIVE)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness
Programme: Mission
Theme: Soil health and food
Destination: Soil health and food
Action type: Research and Innovation actions
Countries involved: Spain,Germany,Greece,Portugal,Poland,Italy,Morocco,Switzerland
Call: Linking soil health to nutritional and safe food (HORIZON-MISS-2021-SOIL-02, 2021)
Start date: 2023-01-01
End date: 2027-12-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 6988660.0
EU funding (EUR): 6988660.0
Participants: 17
Project status: SIGNED

After more than fifty years of intensive agriculture application, the environmental situation for many olive groves across the Mediterranean Region is quite dramatic in terms of land degradation, biodiversity impoverishment, functionality loss, which may have already impacted on the quality and safety of olive oil, one of the most important commodities produced in Europe. Through the implementation of a series of multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary WPs, this project will perform the first rigorous diagnostic of the environmental situation of olive groves soils at a broad scale, considering the most important areas of olive production at the Mediterranean Region and its relationships to olive oil quality. Soil O-live aims (i) to analyze the impact of pollution and land degradation on soils from olive groves in terms of multi-biodiversity, ecological function at different levels of organization and scales; (ii) to investigate the relationship of soil health status with quality and safety of olive oil; (iii) to implement effective soil amendments and ecological restoration practices that promote manifest soil biodiversity and functionality enhancements in permanent Mediterranean olive orchards across its native range of distribution, that should be translated to improvements in olive oil quality and safety; (iv) to define rigorous ecological thresholds that allow to implement future clear norms and regulations in order to design a novel certification for healthy soils in European olive orchards.

Keywords: soil ecology,soil microbiome,microplastics,soil function,land degradation,soil biodiversity,olive oil,polyphenols,pollution,organic agriculture
Understanding, Engineering, and Probing Correlated Many-Body Physics in Superlattices of Graphene and Beyond (SuperCorr)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Condensed Matter Physics
Panel description: Structure, electronic properties, fluids, nanosciences, biological physics
Countries involved: Germany
Call: ERC STARTING GRANTS (ERC-2021-STG, 2021)
Start date: 2022-06-01
End date: 2027-05-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1346126.0
EU funding (EUR): 1346126.0
Participants: 2
Project status: SIGNED

Exploring the plethora of possibilities provided by solid-state systems to realize exotic many-body phases is not only motivated by fundamental questions but also by potential quantum technological applications. In both cases, it is important to have control over the properties of the system in order to engineer the phase of interest, to have a clear theoretical understanding of the microscopic physics, and to be able to probe it. In this regard, superlattice systems have recently brought many exciting results: e.g., the moire lattice that emerges when two layers of graphene are twisted induces correlated phenomena, akin to high-temperature superconductors. Furthermore, artificially arranged atoms on surfaces have become popular tools to design electronic bands. SuperCorr will explore the vast set of possibilities provided by these tunable systems to engineer novel correlated many-body physics, propose ways to probe it, and advance our understanding of the complex phase diagrams of quantum matter. More specifically, we will address key questions related to several different graphene moire systems, such as the origin and form of superconductivity, its relation to the correlated insulator, the interplay of topological obstructions and correlations, and the microscopics of their nematic phases. We will work on the impact of spin-orbit coupling and on a theoretical description of twist-angle disorder, viewing inhomogeneities as a blessing in disguise that can also be used to probe and realize interesting physics. Finally, we will develop a theoretical framework for the design of atom arrangements on the surface of complex host materials, in order to create or simulate a quantum many-body system on demand. To this end, we will employ and further extend a variety of analytical and numerical methods of many-body physics and field theory, and combine it, in some projects, with machine-learning techniques, while keeping a close connection to experiment.

Keywords: moire systems,graphene,2d systems,machine learning in physics
STRATEgic GUide to Smart manufacturing (STRATEGUS)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Postdoctoral Fellowships
Action type: Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions
Panel: Information Science and Engineering
Countries involved: Italy,United States
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2022 (HORIZON-MSCA-2022-PF-01, 2022)
Start date: 2023-10-01
End date: 2026-09-30
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 265099.2
EU funding (EUR): 265099.2
Participants: 2
Project status: SIGNED

Production manufacturing has drastically changed in the last decade, year after year, it became more complex and tightly integrated with new technologies. The application of new technologies can be safely and properly done during the initial design phases of a new production plant. However, one of the key challenges of this so-called “fourth industrial revolution” is that it must be applied to existing production plants, introducing much more complexity. The goal of STRATEGUS is to provide understandable techniques and software architecture for guiding industrials towards the proper integration of new technologies in their current production plant. STRATEGUS will build the so-called digital twin, a digital representation of the factory plant, that functions as an interface to the sensor data and contains mathematical models of the equipment. The digital twin provides a structured view of sensor data, allowing one to perform timing analysis, make future predictions, and adjust the control strategy. Then, the main orchestrator will be Strategist, a meta-scheduler that has a twofold purpose: 1. estimating the timing behaviour of the events inside the physical plant by harnessing the power of the digital twin, and 2. optimising the activities on the line based on order arrival and reacting to unexpected events and accidents. STRATEGUS takes inspiration for describing the models inside the twin from the theory of multimode systems, where each piece of equipment is modelled as a set of differential or difference equations describing how they manipulate the products’ characteristics until it reaches the state of the finished product.

Keywords: cyber physical systems,design automation,continuous time simulation,discrete time simulation,advanced manufacturing,optimization techniques,industrial control systems
Ontological Bridges for Climate Change Mitigation in Maasailand (OBCCMM)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Postdoctoral Fellowships
Action type: Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions
Panel: Social Sciences and Humanities
Countries involved: Norway,Tanzania, United Republic of
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2021 (HORIZON-MSCA-2021-PF-01, 2021)
Start date: 2023-08-01
End date: 2026-07-31
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 242239.2
EU funding (EUR): 242239.2
Participants: 2
Project status: SIGNED

“Ontological Bridge-building for Climate Change Mitigation in Maasailand” (OBCCMM) is a multidisciplinary project that builds bridges across clashing climate ontologies in Maasailand in Tanzania. This holistic project integrates indigenous knowledge and climate science that is negotiated through ecotheological frameworks. The collaboratively developed core values and learning outcomes are worked into curricula components four target research groups. This project leverages existing educational and societal systems of the church with trusted local leaders for educating and equipping with the best practices of climate change mitigation in Maasailand. This project grows out of recent research that demonstrates a “cognitive dissonance” [clash] between the climate ontologies within the scientific messaging and the traditional Maasai worldview (de Wit, 2020). Thus, the Tanzanian governmental efforts in climate change prevention education are not effective among Maasai, a very traditional people group numbering around two million people in mostly northern Tanzania and southern Kenya, East Africa (de Wit, 2018). However, as a result of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, there is an established basic model of the church providing a strategic role in bridging the cognitive dissonance chasm between the science and a skeptical people group, resulting in effective outcomes (Watt et al., 2009). This project expands the current research; builds upon the previous church-based pedagogy models; integrates indigenous knowledge; collaboratively curates core values and learning outcomes; champions women as the core of the societal structures; and develops innovative pedagogical dissemination with robust analysis of results in order to measure and determine best practices of climate change mitigation in Maasailand. As the local church made a difference in the health of the people regarding HIV/AIDS, the local church can make a difference in the health of the environment.

Keywords: climate ontologies,contextual bible interpretation,contextual theology,maasai,climate change mitigation,ecotheology,ecological ethics,indigenous knowledge,tanzania