Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Genetic factors contributing to White Nose Syndrome tolerance in North American and European Myotis-bats (EVOL-WNS)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: Marie-Sklodowska-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Individual Fellowships (IF)-Standard European Fellowships
Action type: Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions
Panel: Environment and Geosciences
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call: Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF-EF) (H2020-MSCA-IF-2015, 2015)
Start date: 2016-11-01
End date: 2018-10-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 183454.8
EU funding (EUR): 183454.8
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

White-Nose Syndrome (WNS) is a fungal disease affecting bats during hibernation. Since 2007, an estimated 6 million bats in North-America have died of the infection, which causes bats to prematurely consume the fat reserves deposited for winter hibernation. The infected bats arouse from hibernation more frequently; probably due to epidermal damage caused by Pseudogymnoascus destructans (Pd), a psychrophilic fungus. Pd originates from Europe, however, European bats appear to be tolerant to the infection. Tolerance has also been recently observed in remnant populations in the U.S, where these WNS-survivors have co-existed with the fungus since 2006. The mechanisms leading to adaptation or tolerance remain unknown. Here we aim to investigate genetic factors that may contribute to Pd-tolerance in the most frequently infected genus of bats, Myotis. By using DNA-samples from two Myotis species from North America (Myotis lucifugus) and Europe (Myotis brandtii), we should observe selection in gene orthologs between European bats and bats in WNS-survivor populations. The selection profiles should differ from archived WNS-susceptible bats, sampled before the onset of the wildlife disease. Once we have identified suitable candidate genes with PoolSeq and detection of selective sweeps, we will validate the results by comparing the transcriptomes of both infected WNS-susceptible and infected WNS-survivor M. lucifugus and infected M. brandtii in the last quartile of their hibernation. The results will demonstrate the pan-species and population-wide effects of a real-time bottleneck and help us understand the mechanisms promoting tolerance to the pathogens. The proposal will provide training in technical and transferable skills to allow the experienced researcher to gain a tenured position and achieve impact through conservation measures that help predict bat population survival rates and hibernation strategies.

Keywords: wildlife epidemics bat pathogen resistance
Hybrid Retinal Prosthesis: High-Resolution Electrode Array Integrated with Neurons for Restoration of Sight (HybridRetina)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment of Human Diseases
Panel description: Medical technologies and tools for prevention, diagnosis and treatment of human diseases, therapeutic approaches and interventions, pharmacology, preventative medicine, epidemiology and public health, digital medicine
Countries involved: Israel
Call: ERC Starting Grant (ERC-2017-STG, 2017)
Start date: 2018-05-01
End date: 2024-04-30
Duration (months): 72.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1499582.0
EU funding (EUR): 1499582.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Vision restoration in patients with outer retinal degenerative diseases, such as Age-related Macular Degeneration and Retinitis Pigmentosa can be achieved by bypassing the degenerated photoreceptors and the electrical stimulation of the relatively well-preserved inner retina through electrode implants. Although current retinal prostheses have been shown to provide useful vision in blind patients, the obtained visual acuity and quality are still relatively low. Several challenges cannot be addressed with the current retinal prosthetic technologies. First, increasing the electrode density for achieving high visual acuity is limited by the distance between the electrodes and the target neurons. Second, electrical stimulation by the current technologies is not selective for specific retinal circuitry (e.g. ON and OFF pathways). Finally, retinal neurons are stimulated by pulsed rather than in a continuously graded potential fashion, which provides the photoreceptors with an unrivalled dynamic range and sensitivity in natural vision. Here we propose a paradigm shift toward sight restoration with a hybrid retinal prosthesis aimed at overcoming the aforementioned limitations. The hybrid implant is composed of a very high density electrode array (pixel distance of 15µm) coupled with neurons to create a tight neuron-electrode coupling. Following implantation of the hybrid prosthesis, the neurons integrate and synapse with the host retinal circuits. Upon patterned electrical stimulation of the neurons by the electrodes, the host bipolar cells are activated while preserving the natural vision circuits. The ultimate electrode-neurons proximity allows for the significant increase in pixel density, the low charge neural activation, and the continuous graded potential activation. This research can advance our knowledge in the retinal field and in other neural prosthetics and if successful, it will enable future vision restoration with unprecedented resolution.

Keywords: retinal prosthesis,retinitis pigmentosa,age related macular degeneration
Policy-making of early nature conservation. The Netherlands and the United Kingdom compared, 1930-1960 (PmNC)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: Marie-Sklodowska-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Individual Fellowships (IF)-Career Restart panel
Action type: Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions
Panel: Social Sciences and Humanities
Countries involved: Netherlands
Call: Individual Fellowships (H2020-MSCA-IF-2018, 2018)
Start date: 2019-09-01
End date: 2021-10-02
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 175572.48
EU funding (EUR): 175572.48
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Whereas comparative analyses of the history of nature conservation usually review either the inter-war period or the 1970s, this research action considers the period between 1930 and 1960 as an era in its own right. These decades are of particular interest for the development of ecological ideas and the establishment of long-term institutional arrangements between politics, science, and civil society concerning nature conservation. Another prominent aspect for this comparative analysis is the influence of right extremist political positions. The understanding of conservationist policies as the result of a process of political agenda-setting, discursive backgrounds, and active involvement of experts and civil society organisations, was a successful basis of analysis for the last decades of the 20th century. Here, this approach will be applied to the United Kingdom and the Netherlands in the ‘missing’ decades between 1930 and 1960. For each country, a civil society organisation, a state agency and a scientific society and their respective roles in the political agenda-setting process will be scrutinised. The purpose of the project is to identify political and discursive continuities in the policy-making process of early nature conservation. The comparative design of the project, its focus on European countries beyond Germany, and its emphasis on institutional continuity through the Second World War will be important assets for the scientific debate about the early conservationist movement and the reconciliation of ‘green’ politics with its ‘brown’ past.

Keywords: nature conservation,governance,civil society,ecology,netherlands,united kingdom,environmentalism,environmental history
Ancient aqueduct carbonate deposits as a high-resolution archive for the environment and archaeology (AQUEA)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: Marie-Sklodowska-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Individual Fellowships (IF)-Standard European Fellowships
Action type: Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions
Panel: Environment and Geosciences
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call: Individual Fellowships (H2020-MSCA-IF-2019, 2019)
Start date: 2021-10-11
End date: 2023-10-10
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 212933.76
EU funding (EUR): 212933.76
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Natural archives such as travertine, speleothems and tree-rings are used to understand past environmental changes and to predict effects of future changes. However, such archives lack a direct link with civilization centres where changes in socio-economy and urbanization, particularly in respond to extreme natural events, can be investigated. New archives are needed near ancient urban centres, especially for the Mediterranean with the threat of droughts and desertification. AQUEA presents calcium carbonate deposits from Roman aqueducts as a new high-resolution archive to obtain both environmental and archaeological data for the Mediterranean in the Roman period. AQUEA will be hosted at Oxford University at two departments: the School of Archaeology and Earth Sciences. AQUEA will use samples of carbonate from three aqueduct sites in Southern France; Nîmes, Arles and Bellegarde, to study palaeoenvironmental changes besides local water management, urbanization and economy during the Imperial Roman period: this requires interdisciplinary collaboration of archaeologists and natural scientists. Therefore, the ER will be supervised by specialists in Roman archaeology, particularly on water management and Roman economy, and in palaeoenvironmental proxy analysis. Archaeological investigations include: interpretation of water structures and their context; use of textual sources on ancient environment, economy and water management; the use of archaeological databases, notably on Roman economy; and the relation of carbonate formation to various structural elements. Research in aqueduct carbonates will apply existing techniques and novel approaches such as Calcium isotopes and use of the CaveCalc numerical forward-modelling program, to better interpret analytical results in terms of ancient environment and Roman land use. AQUEA will address questions on a local scale on changing Roman climate, its implications on Roman economy, urban development and societal changes.

Keywords: roman urbanization,roman cities,ancient water management,roman economy,archaeology,climate change,palaeoenvironmental reconstruction,carbonate geochemistry
Promoting, Patronising and Practising the Arts in Roman Aristocratic Families (1644-1740). The Contribution of Roman Family Archives to the History of Performing Arts (PERFORMART)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Consolidator grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Cultures and cultural production
Panel description: Literary studies, cultural studies, study of the arts, philosophy
Countries involved: Italy,France
Call: ERC Consolidator Grant (ERC-2015-CoG, 2015)
Start date: 2016-09-01
End date: 2022-08-31
Duration (months): 72.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1999182.94
EU funding (EUR): 823182.94
Participants: 2
Project status: CLOSED

Rome, centre of the Catholic Church and capital of the Papal States, strewn with churches and religious institutions, was also, in the 17th and 18th centuries, the scene of intense conflicts and rivalries between some twenty leading aristocratic families, highly adept at organising musical, theatrical and choreographic performances to display their political sympathies. The artistic life that animated the palaces and country villas of this elite has been far less studied than that of the papal court, the grand theatres or the principal churches of Rome. The PERFORMART project aims to enrich our understanding of the history of performing arts among the Roman nobility between 1644 and 1740 by exploiting the abundant documentation contained in the archives of eleven leading aristocratic families. The present proposal arises from the previous research of the principal investigator in the Orsini-Lante Archives. For the first time, PERFORMART will bring together specialised archivists and historians, all expert in different aspects of this micro-society, in a systematic collaboration between the history of the performing arts, choreographic studies, and art, music, social, and economic history. Via a relational database, this collaboration will bring to light original sources able to elucidate the social and artistic practices of Roman families, the motivations and conditions of patronage, the material framework of artistic productions, the status of the artist and his degree of dependence on his protectors, and, finally, the political, local and international impact of the involvement of these noble families on the artistic life of Rome.

Keywords: history of the performing arts,artistic practises,patronage,early modern rome,history of the professionalization of the performer,networks
Sacred Landscapes in Late Byzantium (SLLB)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: Marie-Sklodowska-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Individual Fellowships (IF)-Standard European Fellowships
Action type: Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions
Panel: Social Sciences and Humanities
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call: Individual Fellowships (H2020-MSCA-IF-2016, 2016)
Start date: 2018-02-01
End date: 2020-01-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 195454.8
EU funding (EUR): 195454.8
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

This interdisciplinary project will explore texts composed by the fourteenth-century Constantinopolitan Patriarch Philotheos Kokkinos, with a threefold focus on: 1. The creation of sacred landscape in fourteenth-century Byzantium. 2. The attitude(s) towards and representation(s) of women in late Byzantine patriarchal society. 3. The textual transmission of Kokkinos’ saints’ lives. The project includes the preparation of critical editions for two hitherto unedited hagiographical texts written by Kokkinos. The fellow will receive training in digital humanities and textual criticism which will further his career goal of becoming a lecturer in Medieval Studies. This research project will contribute to a better understanding of Eastern medieval thought-worlds, particularly during the troubled period of the fourteenth century, which saw a shrunken Byzantium struggle for survival between the growing Muslim East and the Latin West.

Keywords: byzantine literature,landscape,gender,hagiography
New Selenium-based Targeted Nanocapsules to treat Breast Cancer (NEOSETAC)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: Marie-Sklodowska-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Research and innovation staff exchange
Action type: Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions
Panel: Life Sciences
Countries involved: Austria,Austria,Spain,Italy,Sweden
Call: Research and Innovation Staff Exchange (H2020-MSCA-RISE-2017, 2017)
Start date: 2018-01-01
End date: 2023-10-31
Duration (months): 70.0
Total project cost (EUR): 504000.0
EU funding (EUR): 504000.0
Participants: 9
Project status: SIGNED

The European Chronic Diseases Alliance has defined cancer as one of the major non-communicable diseases, accounting for 13% of the deaths worldwide, resulting in 8.2 million deaths annually. In the NEOSETAC project, breast cancer will be the focus of study being the most common cancers in women. It comprises of 10.4% of all the cancer incidences among women, causing 411 093 deaths per year overall the world. In Europe, there is more than twice of the amount of new breast cancer cases annually than new cases of cancer in any other place. The complexity of breast cancer makes it a big challenge for successful treatment. The NEOSETAC project will demonstrate the anti-cancer therapeutic potential of a novel Seleniumbased therapy for the management of breast cancer. The clinical application of Selenium (Se) compounds for cancer treatment is until now limited in chemoprevention as dietary supplement. In this proposal, we aim to improve the therapeutic window, pharmacokinetic properties and targeting drug delivery via nanoparticles (NPs). By loading Se into biodegradable NPs, drug release is controlled within the narrow therapeutic window of Se. At the same time the uptake and activation of Se compounds at desired location (tumor lesions and metastasis) is achieved. We also propose to functionalize NPs by cancer cell / cancer stem cell targeting ligands to further improve the therapeutic efficacy and prevent cancer recurrence after chemotherapy. These advantages will lead to an enhanced anticancer activity and reduced systemic toxicity. Moreover, targeting via NPs will improve the pharmacokinetic properties and increase the relatively short half-life (~18 hours) of Se.

Keywords: breast cancer,specific drug targeting,selenium based therapy,intracellular oxidative stress,induced apoptosis,polimeric nanoparticles
Creating a comprehensive functional map of the viral and host factors in HCMV infection (DissectCMV)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Consolidator grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Immunity, Infection and Immunotherapy
Panel description: The immune system, related disorders and their mechanisms, biology of infectious agents and infection, biological basis of prevention and treatment of infectious diseases, innovative immunological tools and approaches, including therapies
Countries involved: Israel
Call: ERC Consolidator Grant (ERC-2019-COG, 2019)
Start date: 2020-06-01
End date: 2025-05-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2000000.0
EU funding (EUR): 2000000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

The herpesvirus human cytomegalovirus (HCMV), the largest known human virus, is a ubiquitous pathogen that persistently infects the majority of the world's population through the establishment of latency. Although asymptomatic in most healthy individuals, HCMV can lead to a severe congenital disease, as well as morbidity and mortality in immunocompromised adults. Despite the prevalence and pathogenicity of HCMV, many fundamental questions about this pathogen remain open. We still do not know the complete list of functional elements in HCMV's complex genome and how these contribute to infection progression and latency, we do not understand the determinants that govern infection outcome, and we are missing tools that will facilitate systematic dissection of the host and viral factors that are needed for HCMV infection in different cell types. In this proposal, we suggest to employ our expertise and to develop unique toolsets to shed light on the host and viral factors that regulate the HCMV life cycle. We propose to combine state-of-the art high-throughput tools with mechanistic studies to comprehensively characterize the viral elements that regulate HCMV progression (aim 1), decipher the determinants that dictate infection outcome (lytic vs. latent, aim 2) and develop and implement a sensitive screening platform that will facilitate easy dissection and characterization of HCMV essential components in any cell type (aim 3). The knowledge generated from these objectives will provide a clearer depiction of the different determinants that control HCMV infection and will generate new tools for the benefit of the community. These in turn could help to expand our therapeutic options. More broadly, with its comprehensive and complementary approaches, this work will provide a paradigm for the study of other herpesviruses and for understanding complex host-pathogen interactions.

Keywords: cytomegalovirus,herpesviruses,crispr,latency,translation regulation,transcriptomic
Random Bifurcation Theory (RBT)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: Marie-Sklodowska-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Individual Fellowships (IF)-Standard European Fellowships
Action type: Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions
Panel: Mathematics
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call: Individual Fellowships (H2020-MSCA-IF-2020, 2020)
Start date: 2022-04-04
End date: 2024-12-02
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 224933.76
EU funding (EUR): 224933.76
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

This project aims at developing the bifurcation theory of random dynamical systems in new directions beyond the traditional setting that are highly relevant in applied sciences. Despite huge developments in stochastic differential equations and their applications in both science and economics, bifurcations in this context are only poorly understood, although qualitative changes in the behaviour of random dynamical systems are omnipresent due to nonlinearities. Research on bifurcations in random systems has flourished in the last decade, with main contributions on local bifurcations coming from the applicant and the host, as explained below. The proposed research builds upon these foundations to address not only open questions in local bifurcation theory, but also develop a fundamental theory for global bifurcations of random dynamical systems.

Keywords: dynamical systems,bifurcation theory,random dynamical systems,ergodic theory,stochastic analysis
Photo Voltaic Fully Integrated and Automated Line (PVFINAL)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Societal Challenges
Programme: Secure, clean and efficient energy
Action type: SME instrument
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call: Stimulating the innovation potential of SMEs for a low carbon energy system (H2020-SMEINST-1-2015, 2015)
Start date: 2015-07-01
End date: 2015-12-31
Duration (months): 6.0
Total project cost (EUR): 71429.0
EU funding (EUR): 50000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Teknisolar is developing a series of efficient, cost-effective and totally innovative technology solutions to manufacture high quality and low cost solar panels that will contribute to decarbonise and make more efficient the European energy system in a sustainable way. The panels we intend to produce are expected to give a strong contribution to: 1. Reaching the grid parity with fossil and nuclear energy sources in the large scale power generation 2. Reducing energy consumption and carbon footprint in the solar panels manufacturing technology Teknisolar project’s ambition is now to demonstrate the ability to produce, in an industrial large scale plant, highly efficient panels using new generation solar cells, which can ensure higher efficiency for a life that is at least double, compared to that of inferior imported products. We intend then to build a fully automated PV manufacturing line, able to produce special PV panels with over 20% more efficiency at relatively low cost, offering the chance to easily achieve the grid parity.

Keywords: solar energy,photo voltaic,renewable energy