Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Adaptive Actin Architectures (AAA)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Advanced grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Cellular, Developmental and Regenerative Biology
Panel description: Structure and function of the cell, cell-cell communication, embryogenesis, tissue differentiation, organogenesis, growth, development, evolution of development, organoids, stem cells, regeneration, therapeutic approaches
Countries involved: France
Call: ERC Advanced Grant (ERC-2016-ADG, 2016)
Start date: 2017-09-01
End date: 2023-08-31
Duration (months): 72.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2349898.0
EU funding (EUR): 1175902.5
Participants: 2
Project status: SIGNED

Although we have extensive knowledge of many important processes in cell biology, including information on many of the molecules involved and the physical interactions among them, we still do not understand most of the dynamical features that are the essence of living systems. This is particularly true for the actin cytoskeleton, a major component of the internal architecture of eukaryotic cells. In living cells, actin networks constantly assemble and disassemble filaments while maintaining an apparent stable structure, suggesting a perfect balance between the two processes. Such behaviors are called “dynamic steady states”. They confer upon actin networks a high degree of plasticity allowing them to adapt in response to external changes and enable cells to adjust to their environments. Despite their fundamental importance in the regulation of cell physiology, the basic mechanisms that control the coordinated dynamics of co-existing actin networks are poorly understood. In the AAA project, first, we will characterize the parameters that allow the coupling among co-existing actin networks at steady state. In vitro reconstituted systems will be used to control the actin nucleation patterns, the closed volume of the reaction chamber and the physical interaction of the networks. We hope to unravel the mechanism allowing the global coherence of a dynamic actin cytoskeleton. Second, we will use our unique capacity to perform dynamic micropatterning, to add or remove actin nucleation sites in real time, in order to investigate the ability of dynamic networks to adapt to changes and the role of coupled network dynamics in this emergent property. In this part, in vitro experiments will be complemented by the analysis of actin network remodeling in living cells. In the end, our project will provide a comprehensive understanding of how the adaptive response of the cytoskeleton derives from the complex interplay between its biochemical, structural and mechanical properties.
Establishing Citizen Science Hubs in European Research Performing and Funding Organisations to drive institutional change and ground Responsible Research and Innovation in society (INCENTIVE)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Science with and for Society
Action type: Coordination and support actions
Countries involved: Spain,Italy,Germany,Switzerland,Greece,Lithuania,Belgium,Netherlands
Call: Grounding RRI in society with a focus on citizen science (H2020-SwafS-2020-1, 2020)
Start date: 2021-02-01
End date: 2024-01-31
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1499458.75
EU funding (EUR): 1499458.75
Participants: 9
Project status: SIGNED

Europe’s Research Performing and Funding Organisations (RPFOs) have a crucial role to play as agents of institutional change towards firmly grounding RRI in our society. The successful fulfilment of this challenging yet highly significant role calls for the values of RRI to be well-embedded into their governance as well as their operation with greater and more systematic participation of citizens and all R&I stakeholders. INCENTIVE is set on empowering European RPFOs to establish sustainable transdisciplinary hubs for stimulating and supporting excellent citizen science with engaged roles for all R&I stakeholders in line with RRI principles. To this end, we start by establishing and demonstrating the potential of such Citizen Science Hubs in 4 world class RPFOs covering all 4 MoRRI Country Clusters, including University of Twente (NL), Autonomous University of Barcelona (ES), Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (EL) and Vilnius Gediminas Technical University (LT). We tailor the governance and operating models of their hubs to their unique institutional specificities and regional ecosystems of R&I stakeholders, before putting them to the test to drive institutional change through a series of RRI-grounding actions conducted with and for society (citizen science, co-creation of public policies, R&I agenda setting, etc.). All in all, our Citizen Science Hubs, besides being a sustainable institutional change themselves, will serve as a vehicle for introducing substantial institutional changes in our RPFOs and their communities. We will closely monitor, evaluate and report the performance and outcomes of our Citizen Science Hubs and their actions, providing evidence of societal, democratic, economic and scientific impacts. Along the way, we will foster mutual learning and networking opportunities amongst RPFOs across Europe to share our experiences and develop practical tools to enable RPFOs to drive similar institutional changes in other contexts.

Keywords: citizen science,governance frameworks,community empowerment,stakeholder ecosystem,sustainable institutional changes
Evolutionary adaptations to mercury pollution in avian bioindicators (AMAZON_MERCURY)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: Marie-Sklodowska-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Individual Fellowships (IF)-Global Fellowships
Action type: Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions
Panel: Environment and Geosciences
Countries involved: United States,Denmark
Call: Individual Fellowships (H2020-MSCA-IF-2019, 2019)
Start date: 2021-04-01
End date: 2024-03-31
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 286921.92
EU funding (EUR): 286921.92
Participants: 2
Project status: SIGNED

Anthropogenically-induced environmental pollution has had a dramatic influence on the natural world, including worldwide decreases in species richness and abundance, ecosystem homogenization, genomic modifications, and altered nutrient cycles. Particularly, human-induced environmental pollution of mercury can bioaccumulate in aquatic ecosystems and cause neurological, physiological, immunological and reproductive damage to wildlife, making it both a European, and global threat. However, the evolutionary impact of long-term exposure to mercury has yet to be studied despite evidence that exposure to mercury can negatively affect survival. Avian piscivores and insectivores, important bioindicators in highly diverse aquatic ecosystem, can be ideal for studying mercury impacts. This project will investigate the evolutionary changes induced by long-term exposure to mercury pollution in wild populations of important avian bioindicators in the Amazon using powerful advanced genomic analyses. It combines the latest Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) methods with avian ecology and evolution, ecotoxicology, immunology and endocrinology, to generate new insights into the costs of environmental pollution, and the subsequent adaptations that allow for species to survive sublethal exposure to mercury. In order to document long-term changes, historical specimens will be used to assess past genomic variation and mercury levels to be used as a baseline against which differentiating selection patterns are searched. The results will reveal the effects of anthropogenic change on important avian bioindicators and identify the missing link between causative mechanisms and phenotypes, thereby availing these methods for further research. By capitalizing on the development and application of cutting-edge genomics techniques, these findings can identify adaptive and susceptive genotypes to indicate whether selection allows for the survival of species in the face of acute environmental change.

Keywords: rapid evolution,adaptation,heavy metals pollution,anthropogenic impact,epigenetics
Developing Data-Intensive Cloud Applications with Iterative Quality Enhancements (DICE)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Industrial Leadership
Programme: Information and Communication Technologies
Theme: Future Internet: Software, hardware, Infrastructures, technologies and services
Action type: Research and Innovation actions
Countries involved: Spain,Italy,Spain,Romania,Greece,Slovenia,France,United Kingdom
Call: Tools and Methods for Software Development (H2020-ICT-2014-1, 2014)
Start date: 2015-02-01
End date: 2018-01-31
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 3954484.0
EU funding (EUR): 3954484.0
Participants: 10
Project status: CLOSED

The rapid increase in demand for data-intensive applications capable of exploiting Big Data technologies such as Hadoop/MapReduce, NoSQL, cloud-based storage, and stream processing is creating massive growth opportunities for European independent software vendors (ISVs). However, developing software that meets the high-quality standards expected for business-critical cloud applications remains a barrier to this market for many small and medium ISVs, which often lack resources and expertise for advanced quality engineering. DICE will tackle this challenge by defining a quality-driven development methodology and related tools that will markedly accelerate the development of business-critical data-intensive applications running on public or private clouds. Building on the principles of model-driven development (MDD) and on popular standards such as UML, MARTE and TOSCA, the project will first define a novel MDD methodology that can describe data and data-intensive technologies in cloud applications. A quality engineering toolchain offering simulation, verification, and numerical optimisation will leverage these extensions to drive the early design stages of the application development and guide software quality evolution. DevOps-inspired methods for deployment, testing, continuous integration and monitoring feedback analysis will be used to accelerate the incorporation of quality in data-intensive cloud application both in public and private deployments, enhancing the capability of small and medium European ISVs to enter the Big Data market.

Keywords: quality,reliability,efficiency,safety,big data,cloud computing,marte,tosca
Cardiac open reading frame edition to study cardiomyopathies in pigs (Cor-Edit-P)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Advanced 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: Germany
Call: ERC ADVANCED GRANT (ERC-2020-ADG, 2020)
Start date: 2022-01-01
End date: 2026-12-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2499375.0
EU funding (EUR): 2499375.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Heart failure represents a common cause of death in European societies and is frequently based on dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) which might be caused by mutations in cardiomyocyte genes. While no specific treatment exists, new therapeutic options are a major unmet clinical need. As attractive novel key approach, Cor-Edit-P will use Crispr-Cas9 based gene editing for distinct gene therapy of genetic cardiomyopathy, using pigs as a unique, clinic-related large animal model system. My lab tailored highly cardiotropic adeno-associated viral (AAV) vectors and their use in pigs in vivo, applying precise, reliable and versatile Cas9 technology. Pioneering this approach, we were able to restore significant dystrophin expression in muscles and hearts of pigs suffering from Duchenne muscle dystrophy. Exploiting unique and cutting-edge technology, Cor-edit-P aims at specifically eliminating the underlying cause of genetic DCM to improve cardiac function, reduce the risk of deadly arrhythmias and increase span and quality of life. Cor-edit-P will - generate currently lacking porcine models of genetic cardiomyopathy, using AAV-Cas9 to induce mutations in sarcomere genes, e.g. titin (TTN) and ß-myosin heavy chain (MYH7); - exercise curative Crispr-Cas9 mediated gene editing of DCM in pigs in vivo, using the PLN-R14del mutation in the phospholamban (PLN) gene as prominent example; - use human patient-derived PLN-R14del ventricular progenitor cells for gene correction ex vivo followed by transplantation of corrected cells into PLN-R14del pigs. Our approach implements a new paradigm for treating genetic cardiomyopathy and develops Crispr-Cas9 based gene therapy in pigs to foster clinical translation. Our work will influence the development of gene therapy by industry and academia and will benefit patients suffering genetic cardiomyopathy, but also further genetic diseases which are manifold prevalent in Europe.

Keywords: gene editing,genetic heart disease,dilated cardiomyopathy,adeno associated virus,cas9
AffordabLe LIghtweight Automobiles AlliaNCE (ALLIANCE)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Industrial Leadership
Programme: Nanotechnologies, Advanced Materials, Advanced Manufacturing and Processing, and Biotechnology
Theme: Advanced materials
Action type: Research and Innovation actions
Countries involved: Germany,Germany,Italy,Germany,Germany,Germany,Germany,Spain,Germany,Italy,Spain,Germany,Switzerland,Norway,Belgium,Sweden,Switzerland,Sweden,Sweden,Czechia,United Kingdom
Call: Affordable weight reduction of high-volume vehicles and components taking into account the entire life-cycle (H2020-NMBP-GV-2016, 2016)
Start date: 2016-10-01
End date: 2019-09-30
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 9017278.75
EU funding (EUR): 7981772.5
Participants: 26
Project status: CLOSED

6 of the European carmakers (DAIMLER, VW, TME, CRF, VOLVO, Opel), under the coordination of EUCAR, have joined forces to commonly address the high cost issue of innovations in vehicle lightweighting, having identified it as the major bottleneck towards their implementation in vehicle series and mass production. The AffordabLe LIghtweight Automobiles AlliaNCE (ALLIANCE) has the ambition to develop novel advanced materials (steel, aluminium, hybrid) and production technologies, aiming at an average 25% weight reduction over 100k units/year, at costs of <3 €/kg. Additionally, ALLIANCE will develop a mass-optimizer software tool and a multi-parameter design optimisation methodology and process, aiming at an accelerated pre-assessment of technologies over existing designs in a holistic framework. ALLIANCE will work on 8 different demonstrators of real vehicle models, 6 of which will be physically tested, aiming at market application by OEMs within 6 years from project end (in 2025). A transferability and scalability methodology will also be developed for results replication across other vehicle components and models in other segments. ALLIANCE aims at becoming a central hub for innovation in lightweight design in Europe. To do so, it will establish an open inclusive framework towards external centres and clusters in this field, involving them in ALLIANCE development through an open lightweight design contest and dedicated workshops.

Keywords: affordable,lightweight,automotive,design,optimisation,steel,aluminium,composites,demonstrators,cost modelling
SmartCharge: Smart integrated circuits for advanced battery management (SmartCharge)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Societal Challenges
Programme: Smart, green and integrated transport
Action type: SME instrument
Countries involved: Denmark
Call: Small business innovation research for Transport and Smart Cities Mobility (H2020-SMEINST-1-2016-2017, 2017)
Start date: 2018-03-01
End date: 2018-07-31
Duration (months): 5.0
Total project cost (EUR): 71429.0
EU funding (EUR): 50000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Electric vehicles (EV) are unquestionably the future of mobility, with numerous initiatives to accelerate its adoption. Nonetheless, technical gaps still exist on EV usage – several of them relating with battery capacity, cost, performance and safety concerns, which create several barriers for EV wider market uptake. Hereto, Battery Management Systems (BMS) have been playing a key role in optimizing the use of continuously larger battery stacks with improved endurance, performance and reliability, typically representing around 15% of the overall battery cost. Hereto, reducing their cost and improving their performance is key to minimize the battery-related bottlenecks for wide EV adoption. LiBAL has developed a novel Integrated Circuit for Advanced Battery Management (ICAB). ICAB is an ASIC-based integrated circuit to be deployed as a local monitoring unit within large BMS. ICAB offers several disruptive features, including 1) an unmatched cost per monitored lithium cell (>50% lower than alternatives from major manufacturers), 2) enabling more efficient energy balancing across cells in the battery pack without ramping overall costs, through a unique, patent-protected hybrid balancing method and 3) is prepared to reduce the complexity of master/slave communication wiring through powerline communications. To bridge the remaining steps towards full scale commercialization of ICAB, LiBAL has not only to widely demonstrate it in full scale but also to consolidate our strategic partnering throughout the EV value chain to ensure enough muscle for ICAB’s production ramp-up. The to-market maturation of ICAB within the present innovation project represents a strategic opportunity yielding a very large business potential for our company – opening a potential revenue stream summing up to over €325 mn over the 5-years post market introduction, from which LiBAL stands to capture over €63 mn as additional gross profits, while creating +50 new positions at our company.

Keywords: battery management systems,integrated circuits,asic,electrical vehicles,lithium battery
Understanding sexual selection to help controlling an invasive pest species (SexSelec_Invasion)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: Marie-Sklodowska-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Individual Fellowships (IF)-Reintegration panel
Action type: Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions
Panel: Environment and Geosciences
Countries involved: France
Call: Individual Fellowships (H2020-MSCA-IF-2016, 2016)
Start date: 2018-03-01
End date: 2020-02-29
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 173076.0
EU funding (EUR): 173076.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Invasive species can have dramatic consequences on the receiving ecosystem and on human activities. At the same time, invasion episodes offer a rare opportunity to observe evolution in action and study adaptation. Understanding the cornerstone role of sexual selection during adaptation can open an avenue of strategies to fight against pest species. During invasion, novel environmental conditions and rapid changes in the genetic composition of populations are expected to influence the dynamics of sexual selection. However, neither theory nor data clearly predict whether sexual selection would be reinforced or hampered during an invasive episode. Understanding the subtle consequences of invasion on sexual selection is crucial, as mating strategies provide tools to fight against pest species. The Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) successfully eliminated several pest species, limiting side-effects on the ecosystem compared to traditional techniques such as pesticides. In this project, I develop a series of experiments combining artificial selection experiments with large scale phenotyping to investigate the dynamics of sexual selection during invasion and test the potential to exploit mating strategies to control pest populations in an evolutionary sustainable way. As a model species, I will use Drosophila suzukii, a champion of invasion that colonised several continents and islands in the last decades. Because D. suzukii feeds and oviposits on close-to-be-marketed fruits, it causes considerable economic losses and the situation requires rapid action. The results of the project will provide both a fundamental understanding of the dynamics of sexual selection during invasion, and essential information for the development of sustainable, environment friendly methods to fight pest species, in particular D. suzukii.

Keywords: sexual selection,invasion,invasive species,pest,artificial selection
Innovative Neutron source for non destructive TEsting and tReatments (INTER)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Proof of concept grants
Action type: ERC actions
Countries involved: Italy
Call: ERC-Proof of Concept-2016 (ERC-2016-PoC, 2016)
Start date: 2017-05-01
End date: 2018-10-31
Duration (months): 18.0
Total project cost (EUR): 149375.0
EU funding (EUR): 149375.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The INTER project aims at the design and production of a proof of concept demonstrator component essential for the development of a novel, tunable and portable neutron source. Neutron beam-based analysis (neutron diffraction, neutron activation analysis, active interrogation) and imaging (radiography, tomography) methods are a powerful tool for non-destructive testing (NDT) of materials and find numerous important applications in industry, security, and material science and technology. Use of laser-driven ion accelerators to generate neutrons can potentially overcome the limitations of conventional neutrons sources. Within the ERC-CoG ENSURE project, I developed a nanostructured material, used to produce a novel multi-layer target concept] allowing to enhance the laser-ion production efficiency with reduced laser requirements and, at the same time, robust enough to be adopted in a commercial targetry device, paving the way for operation with relatively low-energy, commercial, high rep-rate laser systems (1J; 1-10TW; 10-100 Hz). Upon approval of the present INTER ERC-PoC project, I will provide an accelerator module demonstrator, based on such novel target concept, for the generation of an innovative, portable neutron source. If successful, INTER will open the way to put on the market a ready-to-use compact accelerator module able to generate ion & neutron beams with a transportable, affordable laser system. Availability of this technology would find important applications of strong economical and societal interest, like checking for drugs and explosives concealed in luggage and cargo containers, in-situ analysis of key industrial (e.g. engine turbines blades) and electronic (e.g. to measure impurities in silicon semiconductors) components, imaging/interrogation of nuclear fuels, explosives, cultural heritage artifacts, as well as in biology, medicine, fuel cell research and geoscience.

Keywords: neutron,laser,laser plasma interaction,material science,nanostructured materials