Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Mechanism Engineering of the Oxygen Evolution Reaction (ME4OER)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Physical and analytical chemical sciences
Panel description: Analytical chemistry, chemical theory, physical chemistry/chemical physics
Countries involved: Germany
Call: ERC Starting Grant (ERC-2018-STG, 2018)
Start date: 2019-03-01
End date: 2024-05-31
Duration (months): 63.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1499980.0
EU funding (EUR): 1499980.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

I propose innovative strategies to elucidate and engineer the electrocatalytic mechanism of earth-abundant transition metal oxides with the aim of enhancing the low efficiency of the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Mastering multi-electron reactions such as the OER is critical for the transition from dwindling fossil fuels to ecologically and economically sustainable fuels based on renewable energy. Water is the most abundant source of hydrogen bonds on earth and fuels based on these bonds have the highest energy densities, which makes water an attractive resource for sustainable fuels production. However, the production of any hydrogen-based fuel from water is currently thwarted by the low efficiency of the OER. Improved catalysts are presently designed by optimizing a single step in the reaction sequence. In contrast, I target the low efficiency of the OER by engineering multiple steps of the mechanism to (i) control the number of electron transfers before the limiting step; and (ii) enforce a reaction path close to the thermodynamic limit. Combining these two strategies increases the catalytic current of transition metal oxides at typical overpotentials by a factor of 100,000. Rational design of the mechanism on this fundamental level calls for unprecedented insight into the active state of electrocatalysts. My team will achieve this firstly by novel approaches to prepare catalytically limiting states for their elucidation by synchrotron-based X-ray spectroscopy and secondly by studying transitions between these states in pioneering time-resolved experiments. Both the required breakthroughs in method development and the innovative scientific strategies are generalizable to other multi-electron reactions, which opens the door for industrial catalysts that store energy sustainably in hydrogen-based fuels on a global scale.

Keywords: electrocatalysis,water splitting,water oxidation,oxygen evolution reaction,epitaxial thin films,x ray absorption spectroscopy,soft x rays,operando spectroscopy
Marine and Maritime Research, Innovation, Technology Centre of Excellence (MARITEC-X)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Spreading excellence and widening participation
Programme: Widening participation and spreading excellence
Theme: Improved access to Excellence
Action type: Coordination and support actions
Countries involved: Ireland,Ireland,Cyprus,United Kingdom
Call: Teaming Phase 1 (H2020-WIDESPREAD-04-2017-TeamingPhase1, 2017)
Start date: 2017-09-01
End date: 2018-08-31
Duration (months): 12.0
Total project cost (EUR): 399691.25
EU funding (EUR): 399691.25
Participants: 8
Project status: CLOSED

The MARITEC-X consortium aims to create a Marine and Maritime Research Innovation and Technology Centre of Excellence based in Cyprus to act as an enabler of scientific and business excellence in Marine and Maritime issues in the Eastern and broader South-eastern Mediterranean. The Centre will be aligned to the overall Smart Specialization Strategy for Cyprus (S3CY) and the European priorities on specific pillars with competitive advantages to the Cypriot economy. Focusing on key priority sectors identified within the Smart Specialization Strategy for Cyprus such as energy, tourism, transport and shipping, MARITEC-X Centre of Excellence will seek partnering relationships with well-known European institutions that will assist to the transfer of knowledge, co-develop sustainability and research programs, handover best practices and consult towards the creation of a critical mass of infrastructure and human capital in the region.

Keywords: marine,maritime,business plan,cyprus,east mediterranean,scientific excellence,larnaka,limassol
Key Inclusive Development Strategies for LifeLongLearning (KIDS4ALLL)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Societal Challenges
Programme: Europe in a changing world - inclusive, innovative and reflective societies
Theme: Inclusive societies
Action type: Innovation actions
Countries involved: Israel,Germany,Spain,Spain,Italy,Italy,Italy,Malta,Belgium,Bulgaria,Norway,Türkiye,Greece,Hungary
Call: Mapping and overcoming integration challenges for migrant children (H2020-SC6-MIGRATION-2020, 2020)
Start date: 2021-04-01
End date: 2024-03-31
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 3138330.25
EU funding (EUR): 3039903.63
Participants: 15
Project status: SIGNED

KIDS4ALLL aims to implement a pilot action that will experiment a learning method and learning environment in formal, non-formal and informal educational contexts to address the integration challenges of migrant children. The KIDS4ALLL learning method draws on (1) knowledge acquisition (2) skills training and (3) attitude transfer to convey lifelong learning competences as a whole within a collaborative and co-creative learning process. As a response to the educational needs of children, in particular of migrant children, and of educators as pathfinders for continuous lifelong and lifewide learning, the project is grounded on three Key Inclusive Development Strategies (KIDS) towards LifeLongLearning (LLL), which represent the specific objectives of the project: 1) Fostering acquisition, maintenance and cultivation of competences related to the 8 LLL key areas; 2) Enhancing the methodological competences of educators towards inclusive and participatory teaching, training and intercultural dialogue; 3) Testing the concept of peer-to-peer learning in the form of buddyship collaboration (guided pairing of learners) with the lifelong and lifewide dimensions of learning. The learning method will be corroborated by the online and offline instruments that represent the KIDS4ALLL learning environment. The KIDS4ALLL project team envisages implementation of the pilot action in formal, non-formal and informal institutions in 9 countries (3 of which non-EU), all chosen because of their specific and variegated migration and educational contexts, and reaching approximately 1000 members of the principal target groups defined by the project. The impact of KIDS4ALLL will be brought about through the combined expertise of the consortium members, including academic institutions, civil society organizations and policymakers from 8 EU countries and 3 non-EU countries, and an International Advisory Board that covers six additional countries in Europe and beyond.

Keywords: migrant children,educators,lifelong learning,collaborative learning,digital skills,whole child approach,linguistic and cultural diversity
Engineered Protein Nanosheets at Liquid-Liquid Interfaces for Stem Cell Expansion, Sorting and Tissue Engineering (ProLiCell)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Consolidator 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 Consolidator Grant (ERC-2017-COG, 2017)
Start date: 2018-09-01
End date: 2024-08-31
Duration (months): 72.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1999389.0
EU funding (EUR): 1999389.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

A long standing dogma in the field of cell-based technologies is that bulk mechanical properties of solid substrates are essential to enable cell spreading, proliferation and fate decision. The use of solid materials to culture adherent cells constitutes an important hurdle for the scale up, automation and speed up of cell culture and recovery. Our recent results show that bulk solid substrates are not necessary to promote cell adhesion, growth and fate regulation as adherent stem cells spread and proliferate readily at the surface of ultra-soft materials, even liquids. In such cases, cell adhesion is enabled by the formation of a mechanically strong layer (nanosheet) of proteins at the interface between the oil (liquid substrate) and aqueous medium. This key discovery opens the door to the engineering of protein nanosheets enabling the use of liquid, free-flowing substrates sustaining cell adhesion, expansion, isolation and recovery. ProLiCell will design the biochemical and mechanical properties of extracellular matrix (ECM) protein nanosheets that can sustain the formation of adhesion protein complexes and support cell proliferation and culture on materials with very weak bulk mechanical properties (liquids). The engineered ECM nanosheets will be applied to: 1. the design of 3D bioreactors based on emulsions, for the culture of stem cells; 2. the formation of stem cell sheets at oil-water interfaces for tissue engineering; 3. the isolation and purification of stem cells using emulsions presenting antibody-adsorbed interfaces. ProLiCell will provide fundamental insights into ECM nanosheet design and advance our understanding of the mechanisms via which cells adhering to such interfaces sense and respond to nanoscale cues. Such fundamental understanding will enable liquid-liquid platforms to transform stem cell technologies by borrowing a wider range of processing and manufacturing concepts to the field of Chemical Engineering.

Keywords: protein nanosheet,self assembly,liquid liquid interface,stem cells
Comorbid Analysis of Neurodevelopmental Disorders and Epilepsy (CANDY)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Societal Challenges
Programme: Health, demographic change and wellbeing
Theme: Understanding health, wellbeing and disease
Action type: Research and Innovation actions
Countries involved: Germany,Germany,Belgium,Switzerland,Belgium,Sweden,France,France,Netherlands,Netherlands,Netherlands,United Kingdom,United Kingdom,United Kingdom
Call: Understanding causative mechanisms in co- and multimorbidities combining mental and non-mental disorders (H2020-SC1-2019-Two-Stage-RTD, 2019)
Start date: 2020-01-01
End date: 2024-12-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 6000000.0
EU funding (EUR): 6000000.0
Participants: 18
Project status: SIGNED

Neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs) including autism spectrum disorder (ASD), attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and intellectual disability (ID) are clinically heterogeneous, often co-occur, affect ~15% of the EU population; and are associated with somatic illnesses (e.g. epilepsy, autoimmune and gastrointestinal disease) that lead to a significant increase in morbidity and mortality. For instance in ASD the combination of ID and epilepsy is associated with a reduction in lifespan of ~ 20 years; and an economic cost that is greater than cancer, stroke, or dementia. Yet, the research spend on NDDs is less than 1% of those disorders. Hence, we lack effective new treatments for NDDs and do not understand why they co-occur. There is hope, however. Recent evidence shows that rare genetic variants increasing risk for NDDs are shared, converge on final common pathways (e.g. synaptic plasticity, glutamate and GABA neurotransmission, and excitation/inhibition imbalance), and a key role is likely played by immune dysregulation. CANDY’s innovation is to test, for the first time, if NDDs, and their common mental and somatic multi-morbidity, are caused by a combination(s) of common and rare genetic variants and immune activation acting at different ‘sensitive periods’. Our multi-disciplinary team of world leading academics, patient organizations and SMEs will cost-effectively leverage existing EU-funded studies to 1) identify novel mechanisms underpinning NDDs and their multi-morbidity, 2) develop new strategies for prevention and treatment, 3) deliver novel biomarkers to guide early diagnosis, stratification and/or treatment monitoring, and 4) provide open-access databases, translational test batteries, and tools and targets for valorisation. Together we will transform the landscape for people with NDDs and make possible personalized medicine approaches that target particular mechanisms, in specific subgroups of individuals and at different life stages.

Keywords: autism,attention deficit hyperactivity disorder,intellectual disability,epilepsy,inflammation,microbiome,common rare genetic variants,glutamate,gaba,biomarkers,multiplex family,preschooler
Asynchronous Time-domain Neural Recording Interfaces (ATiNaRI)

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: Information Science and Engineering
Countries involved: Netherlands
Call: Individual Fellowships (H2020-MSCA-IF-2016, 2016)
Start date: 2017-09-18
End date: 2019-12-04
Duration (months): 22.0
Total project cost (EUR): 151798.9
EU funding (EUR): 151798.9
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Implantable neural recording devices are being used by neuroscientists and neurosurgeons for monitoring the behaviour of particular parts of the brain. With the advancement of microelectronics manufacturing processes, wireless multi-channel neural recording systems have become available during the last decade. However, the capabilities of neural recording implants are still limited by their power density in order not to harm the surrounding tissue by heat generation, and by their total power consumption which limits the operational longevity of the implant. If the operational capabilities and longevity of the neural recording implants are to be improved, new methods of power consumption reduction are required. I will address the power consumption reduction problem in a Marie Skłodowska-Curie European Fellowship with Prof. Serdijn at the Dept. of Microelectronics of TU Delft. I will try to solve the problem by researching asynchronous time-domain signal processing and by creating a generalized implementation framework for the time-domain signal processing applications. During the course of the project, I will be able to collaborate with experts in biomedical circuits, signal processing, and microfabrication to conclude this research project successfully. The proposed research will result in a working prototype ultra-low power asynchronous time-domain wireless neural recording chip, and at least three peer-reviewed research articles will be published. Undertaking this research along with formal training and mentoring will enhance my academic profile, scientific experience, and expertise in bioelectronics. The proposed research is in line with the scientific aims of EU to improve lifelong health and wellbeing of all. By the successful completion of the project, new methodologies for power reduction in neural implants will be available for use by both academic and industrial entities.

Keywords: asynchronous,time domain,time mode,subthreshold,wireless,neural implant,neural recording
Human-Animal Relationships in Archaeology: World Views of Hunter-gatherers in Northern Europe (HARA)

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: Ireland
Call: Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF-EF) (H2020-MSCA-IF-2015, 2015)
Start date: 2016-09-01
End date: 2018-08-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 187866.0
EU funding (EUR): 187866.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Human-Animal Relationships in Archaeology: World Views of Hunter-gatherers in Northern Europe (HARA) will provide important new perspectives on human interactions with animals in Northern Europe in the ethnographic present and the archaeological past. This will include innovative analysis of ethnographic materials from NE Russia and archaeological materials from the Baltic, including Europe’s largest Stone Age burial ground (350 graves), Zvejnieki in Latvia. HARA will focus on how animal remains, especially artefacts manufactured on animal remains, and animal iconography reflect human-animal relations. With the aim to develop new perspectives on human-animal relationships among hunter-gatherers in Northern Europe the project will utilise innovative analogies and theoretical frameworks derived from ethnographic analysis and new experimental archaeological approaches to artefacts manufactured from animal remains. The case studies will allow an assessment of changes in human-animal relationships during the introduction of domestic animals: a process which is widely considered to have been transformative of human society and human understandings of animals and has been a significant focus for research. The academic impact of this multidisciplinary project is therefore substantial. The applicant will move from her current position with the Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Research, Zagreb,Croatia to School of Archaeology, University College Dublin, Ireland. She will receive training in experimental archaeology and animal osteoarchaeology, the archaeology of hunter-gatherers, and in teaching archaeology as well as a formal introduction to the management and delivery of research projects. Completion of this project will allow the applicant to develop into a position of professional maturity with a specific and unique interdisciplinary set of skills and will be able to pursue an international academic research and teaching career in the field of human-animal studies.

Keywords: archaeology,hunter gatherers,mesolithic,neolithic,ethnography,human animal relationships,world views,domestication,northern europe,animal remains,iconography,artefacts
Achieving Complex Collaborative Missions via Decentralized Control and Coordination of Interacting Robots (Co4Robots)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Industrial Leadership
Programme: Information and Communication Technologies
Action type: Research and Innovation actions
Partnership: Robotics SPARC (cPPP)
Countries involved: Germany,Spain,Greece,Sweden,Greece,Sweden
Call: Advanced robot capabilities research and take-up (H2020-ICT-2016-1, 2016)
Start date: 2017-01-01
End date: 2020-06-30
Duration (months): 42.0
Total project cost (EUR): 3820956.25
EU funding (EUR): 3820956.25
Participants: 6
Project status: CLOSED

Imagine a scenario where multiple robots have been deployed to provide services such as object handling/transportation, or pickup and delivery operations. In such a context, different robots with varying capabilities must be coordinated in order to achieve various multi-tasking procedures. Thus, the effective supervision and coordination of the overall heterogeneous system mandates a decentralized framework that integrates high-level task-planning, low-level motion control and robust, real-time sensing of the robots’ dynamic environment. Current practice is at a great deal based on offline, centralized planning and related tasks are usually fulfilled in a predefined manner: this does not utilize the capabilities of the system to operate efficiently in a dynamic environment. In most cases, sudden changes in the environment, the type of tasks, and the need for coordination, would cause the system to halt, ask for human intervention and restart. Despite the fact that public facilities are in some degree prestructured, the need for a framework for decentralized, real-time, automated task (re)-planning is evident in a twofold manner: (i) it will pave the way to an improved use of resources and a faster accomplishment of tasks inside public facilities and workspaces with high social activity; (ii) it will make an important contribution towards the vision of more flexible multirobot applications in both professional or domestic environments, also in view of the “Industry 4.0” vision and the general need to deploy such systems in everyday life scenarios. Within Co4Robots our goal is to build a systematic methodology to accomplish complex specifications given to a team of potentially heterogeneous robots; control schemes appropriate for the mobility and manipulation capabilities of the considered robots; perceptual capabilities that enable robots to localize themselves and estimate the state of the dynamic environment; and their systematic integration approach.

Keywords: multi robot systems,robot task planning,collaborative manipulation,software architecture for robotics,collaborative robot perception,decentralized multi robot control,heterogeneous robots
AptoGEL: A 3D Platform for Mesenchymal Stem Cell Homing (AptoGEL)

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: Chemistry
Countries involved: Switzerland
Call: Individual Fellowships (H2020-MSCA-IF-2019, 2019)
Start date: 2020-09-01
End date: 2022-08-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 191149.44
EU funding (EUR): 191149.44
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

It is estimated that about 0.5% of the world’s population will require an articular cartilage (AC) intervention at some point in their life. Current treatment options for osteochondral (OC) lesions are only marginally successful, and if left untreated, lead to osteoarthritic (OA) joint disease, one of the major sources of disability world-wide. Many of the common surgical approaches to treat cartilage lesions like, microfracture (MF), are dependent on the efficient migration of cells from the underlying subchondral bone (SB) to ensure successful regeneration of the tissue. However, the extent of cell migration and hence the clinical outcome, is highly variable. To overcome this critical limitation, a scaffold is proposed which uses two key mechanisms to induce stem cell migration. Firstly, the scaffold is composed of macroporous annealed particle (MAP) hydrogels, whose void space naturally facilitates endogenous the migration of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). Secondly, the microgels are modified with a specific aptamer, Apt19S, which has been shown to have high affinity to MSCs. Specifically in this project; hyaluronic acid (HA) will be triple-modified with methacrylate groups, transglutaminase (TG)-sensitive peptides and the Apt19S aptamer to produce AptoGEL, a new and exciting material with key properties needed for OC regeneration. We hypothesize this advanced, yet biocompatible material, will provide an ideal 3D environment for promoting cell migration and differentiation leading to a more fully functional OC repair

Keywords: hydrogel