Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Meteotsunami detection and tracking: Developing a solution based on assessment of real-time measurements (MeD-Track)

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: Croatia
Call: ERC PROOF OF CONCEPT GRANTS (ERC-2024-POC, 2024)
Start date: 2025-04-01
End date: 2026-09-30
Duration (months): 18.0
Total project cost (EUR): 205714.29
EU funding (EUR): 150000.0
Participants: 2
Project status: SIGNED

Meteorological tsunamis (meteotsunamis) are long ocean waves (periods of: 1 < T < ~120 min) that have the same periods, wavelengths and amplitudes as seismic tsunamis, but are generated by processes in the atmosphere. Meteorological tsunamis occur all over the world. Although they are never nearly as destructive as seismic tsunamis, meteotsunamis occasionally cause destruction and loss of life. After several devastating events, firstly national authorities in several countries at risk, and then the global authorities (such as the UNESCO), have begun to look for ways to incorporate meteotsunamis into their forecasting and warning systems and/or to develop meteotsunami warning procedures. Although important steps have already been taken, forecasting meteotsunamis and issuing timely warnings is still a challenge. As part of the MeD-Track project, we plan to develop a meteotsunami detection and tracking system. The proposed system will consist of: (1) custom-built atmospheric stations that measure atmospheric pressure with high precision and resolution, and that are (2) organized in an optimal network, as well as (3) an algorithm for detection and tracking of meteotsunamis in real-time. If effective, the developed solution could lead to an improvement in meteotsunami forecasts and warnings, helping vulnerable local communities to protect their property and well-being.

Keywords: meteotsunami,early warning system,tracking algorithms,natural hazards
Replaying the ecological tape: Predicting CLIMate-driven SHifts In past and Future species' distribuTion limits? (ClimSHIFT)

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: Environment and Geosciences
Countries involved: United Kingdom,France
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2024 (HORIZON-MSCA-2024-PF-01, 2024)
Start date: 2025-07-01
End date: 2027-06-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 260347.92
EU funding (EUR): 260347.92
Participants: 2
Project status: SIGNED

Climate change is driving significant shifts in species distributions globally, yet our ability to predict these changes remains limited. Only 47% of assessed species are moving towards cooler regions as expected, while others have remained static or shifted towards warmer areas. This variability poses a critical challenge for biodiversity conservation. The ClimSHIFT project aims to revolutionise our understanding of species' climate-driven range shifts by applying state-of-the-art mechanistic niche models across a large dataset of over 1000 bird species. We will address three key research objectives: WP1) Identify biological traits influencing species' adaptability to changing climates. WP2) Assess if species are tracking previously unrealised climatic tolerances, by developing accurate predictive models based on species' fundamental climate tolerances. WP3) Generate improved forecasts of future avian biodiversity patterns, highlighting periods and areas of synchronised range contractions and ecological disruption. This project represents the first such global-scale assessment of distribution response to climate change using species' fundamental physiological limits to predict range shifts. By combining cutting-edge methodologies with an extensive dataset, ClimSHIFT aims to significantly advance our ability to forecast and mitigate climate change impacts on biodiversity. Our findings will have far-reaching implications for conservation planning and ecosystem management. We will provide essential information for targeted conservation efforts by identifying vulnerable species and potential future habitats. The novel frameworks developed can be adapted to other taxa, providing a more comprehensive understanding of ecosystem responses to global change. Ultimately, ClimSHIFT seeks to transform our approach to biodiversity conservation in a rapidly changing world, providing the scientific foundation needed to safeguard species and ecosystems for future generations.

Keywords: predictability,climate change,birds
The role of embryonic metabolism under maternal control in phenotypic evolution of blind cavefish (CaveMum)

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: Life Sciences
Countries involved: France
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2024 (HORIZON-MSCA-2024-PF-01, 2024)
Start date: 2026-02-01
End date: 2028-01-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 226420.56
EU funding (EUR): 226420.56
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Animal development is initially directed by maternal products deposited in the egg, entirely controlling early embryogenesis, including key patterning events, before the maternal-to-zygotic transition (MZT) and zygotic genome activation. Despite differences in maternal programmes between species, the role of maternal factors in morphological evolution remains largely unexplored. This project aims to address this question using Astyanax mexicanus – a fish species with sighted river-dwelling (SF) and blind cave-adapted (CF) morphs that have rapidly and extensively diverged in morphology, physiology and behaviour. CF and SF egg transcriptomes display strong maternal signatures linked to differences in gastrulation and cavefish sensory phenotypes. The host laboratory discovered that divergence between maternal programmes primarily involves genes with metabolism-related functions. Thus, variation in embryonic metabolism and processes it influences may constitute an important mechanism of developmental evolution. To address this hypothesis, I propose to first characterise the aspects of metabolism under divergent maternal control to identify candidate genes for functional analysis. Second, I will employ transcriptome editing and chemical treatments to examine the function of the candidate genes in cavefish embryogenesis, and the phenotypic outcomes will be characterised to link metabolic and phenotypic variation. Finally, I will test the hypothesis that morph-specific aspects of embryonic metabolism may influence the timing, dynamics and extent of the essential transcriptome reprogramming event during embryo development – MZT. Altogether, this innovative, timely and highly integrative study will shed new light on the functional importance and mechanisms of maternal control and embryonic metabolism in the phenotypic evolution of cavefish and, more broadly, vertebrates.

Keywords: maternal regulation of embryogenesis,embryonic metabolism,zygotic genome activation,phenotypic evolution,fish model,gene regulation
Tuning TDP-43 self-assembly to understand physiological function and dysfunction (TDP-Assembly)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Consolidator grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Molecules of Life: B iological  Mechanisms , Structures  and Functions
Panel description: For all organisms : Molecular biology , biochemistry, structural biology, molecular biophysics , synthetic and chemical biology, drug design, innovative methods and modelling
Countries involved: Germany
Call: ERC CONSOLIDATOR GRANTS (ERC-2023-COG, 2023)
Start date: 2024-07-01
End date: 2029-06-30
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1999989.0
EU funding (EUR): 1999989.0
Participants: 2
Project status: SIGNED

Neurodegenerative disorders are an enormous societal burden and we lack therapies that target these diseases at their origins. To develop therapies, we need to understand what goes wrong at the molecular level. I uncovered key mechanisms that cause RNA-binding proteins, such as TDP-43, to dysfunction and drive neurodegenerative processes. I discovered that RNA-binding proteins self-assemble into ribonucleoprotein granules that are the likely origins of RNA-binding protein aggregates. More recently, my group and I revealed aberrant phase transitions of condensed RNA-binding proteins occurring in disease and identified fundamental mechanisms by which such phase transitions are regulated in cells. In TDP-Assembly, I now want to find out why these proteins exhibit a self-assembly behavior that apparently risks pathological aggregation. My hypothesis is that self-assembly is essential for their many functions in gene regulation, and that different types of self-assemblies, e.g., small clusters or fluid or solid condensates, mediate different functions in cells. Using TDP-43 as a paradigm, I will test this hypothesis to ultimately understand the molecular basis of RNA-binding protein dysfunction in neurodegeneration. To achieve this goal, I will use synthetic biology approaches to rationally tune self-assembly of TDP-43 in cells. I will study how altered TDP-43 self-assembly affects its known molecular functions, i.e., regulation of transcription, alternative splicing, and translation. Transcriptome and proteome analyses will draw a systems biology map of altered TDP-43 self-assembly and might lead us to novel functions of TDP-43 self-assembly. Ultimately, I will address how TDP-43's self-assembly, and thus its functions, are altered by disease-linked mutations in neuronal cells. TDP-Assembly will forge a new understanding of the functional and pathological relevance of RNA-binding protein self-assembly and might inspire new therapies that target self-assembly processes.

Keywords: rna binding proteins,intrinsically disordered proteins,phase separation,neurodegeneration,tdp 43
Dynamic Peptide-Phosphate-based Hydrogels for Modelling Diseases and Therapeutic Interventions (D-PhosMate)

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: Chemistry
Countries involved: Portugal
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2023 (HORIZON-MSCA-2023-PF-01, 2023)
Start date: 2024-06-01
End date: 2026-05-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 156778.56
EU funding (EUR): 156778.56
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Supramolecular biomaterials represent a promising solution to address complex challenges in advanced therapies and disease modelling platforms. D-PhosMate’s overarching aim is to explore different formulation strategies and molecular designs based on enzymes, natural phosphate-containing units, and peptide amphiphile building blocks, to generate self-assembling hydrogels with time-dependent mechanical and degradation properties as vehicles for the delivery of living therapeutics (generated in situ) and in vitro extracellular matrix models along disease progression. These biocompatible hydrogels will exhibit enzyme-instructed biomechanical and chemical tuneability, which represent versatile platforms that will be leveraged for two applications. First, for the post-operative treatment of glioblastoma multiforme (the most aggressive malignant brain tumour), and second, for understating the molecular mechanisms responsible for ectopic calcifications (the mineralisation of the extracellular matrix of soft tissues like kidneys, joints, heart valves, and arteries, among others). Outcomes from the project will benefit several communities, including peptide and supramolecular chemistry, biomaterials science, bioengineering, cancer, and cardiovascular medicine, among others. All of this, while providing advanced training and career development opportunities for a young researcher at the intersection of advanced biomaterials design, peptide nanotechnology, and precision medicine. Molecular tools provided by D-PhosMate will increase available cancer therapeutic choices and will contribute to improving the translation of preclinical research, enhancing success rates of clinical trials (with a consequent multibillion-dollar impact) and the life quality improvement of patients in need of innovative therapies.

Keywords: hydrogels,peptides,poly phosphates,self assembly,mechanical properties,enzymatic degradation,metabolites,therapies,in vitro models,biomineralization
Hard work, plastic flow: a data-centric approach to dislocation-based plasticity (DISCO-DATA)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Materials Engineering
Panel description: Advanced materials development: performance enhancement, modelling, large -scale preparation, modification, tailoring, optimisation, novel  and combined use of materials, etc.
Countries involved: Germany
Call: ERC STARTING GRANTS (ERC-2024-STG, 2024)
Start date: 2024-11-01
End date: 2029-10-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1498839.0
EU funding (EUR): 1498839.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Metals as structural materials are at the core of our society. Almost everything we physically interact with includes some form of metal manufactured to specific properties and formed into a desired shape. Consequently, the understanding and design of the balance between ductility and strength of metals are one of the primary disciplines of materials science. On a fundamental level, this is the description of crystalline line defects called dislocations. At the atomic scale, the current understanding of dislocations is often on the level of individual dislocation properties. At the component scale, collective behavior is commonly formulated in continuum variables with the drawback of limited applicability over a wide range of possible scenarios. Our current understanding still shows a gap in how individual dislocation properties translate into their collective behavior. To address this long-standing question, I propose a data-centric approach. First, a comprehensive dataset of dislocation ensemble trajectories for various loading and initial conditions is created using discrete dislocation dynamics as well as molecular dynamics simulations and iteratively extended. The trajectories are subsequently analyzed with tools borrowed from graph theory and time-series analysis to capture the network character of dislocation structures. Subsequently, a novel class of plasticity models is developed: instead of human-derived state variables, I will `let the data speak for itself’ to bridge the gap between individual and collective dislocation behavior. The project solves two timely challenges in materials science: One is the described gap, and the other is a demonstration of effective research data management of complex materials data providing solutions to data generation, storage, accessibility, data fusion, reuse, and analysis using the example of dislocation trajectories.

Keywords: dislocation based plasticity,work hardening,materials informatics,data science,graph theory
RuBusT: Rural Business Transfers for Stronger Societies (RuBusT)

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: Italy
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2024 (HORIZON-MSCA-2024-PF-01, 2024)
Start date: 2025-09-01
End date: 2027-08-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 193643.28
EU funding (EUR): 193643.28
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

In order to continue its existence, a society needs people. But how can a society bounce back after it has passed that invisible threshold enabling its own self-reproduction? The RuBusT project tackles this question from an innovative angle, investigating the potential of business transfers (BTs) as catalysts for rural revitalisation. Decades of outmigration and severe ageing have disrupted the spontaneous intergenerational transmission of the rural heritage. As entrepreneurial acts that can jointly preserve social and economic vitality — safer and more productive than startups — BTs appear as a promising avenue to reconnect rural generations and ensure the passage of knowledge from ageing entrepreneurs to younger innovators. Yet, not only are BTs overlooked in rural development strategies, the still developing field of BTs has mostly ignored rural realities, affected by methodologies unable to account for contextual sensitivities, that promote one-size-fits-all policies and that underestimate the level of socialisation of private risks, such as business closures, in vulnerable societies. The project leverages the power of place-based development studies and participatory research to question on the ground each of these assumptions and influence the way we think about and practice BTs in remote rural areas (RRAs). Focusing on rapidly ageing and depopulating communities in Alta Marmilla in Sardinia, Italy, and using challenge-based interactive workshops, the project explores the nature and health of rural BT ecosystems and actively engages with BT stakeholders and citizens to co-design a BT Strategy. In this way, the project aims at strengthening BTs service provision and introducing new business models in BT transactions that prioritise local needs. Its learning outcomes can thus inspire similarly struggling European RRAs with new, practical ways to mitigate the worst effects of unfolding demographic changes and build robust rural societies.

Keywords: business transfers entrepreneurial ecosystems rural remote rural areas revitalisation intergenerational exchange demographic changes participatory approach place based development sardinia
Legonucleotides for detection (Chem2Sense)

Framework: Horizon Europe — 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: Spain
Call: ERC CONSOLIDATOR GRANTS (ERC-2023-COG, 2023)
Start date: 2024-09-01
End date: 2029-08-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1999144.0
EU funding (EUR): 1999144.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Sensors have a vital importance on human life, detecting diseases or contaminants that endanger the environment. A widely pursued challenge has been to develop universal biosensors with the flexibility to detect molecules regardless of their size. Antibodies have been used to fulfill this aim, but single-stranded oligonucleotides (aptamers) interact efficiently with targets and have also been proposed as an alternative. However, aptamers lack the ability for versatile functionalization to tune affinities, and they suffer from highly complex selection and identification. Chem2Sense proposes an interdisciplinary approach to overcome these obstacles. My hypothesis is that a new strategy based on the reversible conjugation of aptamers with small molecules will remove barriers in designing universal biosensors. Chem2Sense aims to redesign the aptamer concept with flexible oligolegonucleotides and a cutting-edge nanopore sequencing methodology. The two objectives will be to develop chemically modified nucleotides as lego-bricks to build high-affinity aptalegomers, and to develop a ground-breaking sequencing methodology using artificial intelligence to boost aptalegomer identification. The proposed legonucleotides are synthetic nucleotides that reversibly attach small molecules in a dynamic combinatorial library. After challenging a vast library against a target, a Darwinian chemical selection will occur, leading to the best fit, the aptalegomer, a high-affinity oligonucleotide of natural and conjugated legonucleotides. Therefore, the objective of Chem2Sense is to create a ground-breaking methodology that overcomes significant obstacles in aptamers’ development, providing a powerful synergy between novel chemical aptalegomers generation and a direct method for selection/identification using the latest advances in oligonucleotide sequencing. Chem2Sense will bring highly sensitive and versatile aptalegomers to a broad range of vital applications.

Keywords: dynamic combinatorial chemistry,nucleotides,non covalent interactions
Science with citizens (SCITIZEN)

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: Spain,Australia
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2024 (HORIZON-MSCA-2024-PF-01, 2024)
Start date: 2025-04-01
End date: 2028-03-31
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 333129.36
EU funding (EUR): 333129.36
Participants: 2
Project status: SIGNED

Citizen science (CS) encompasses a variety of ways in which society engages with science, ranging from knowledge production to policy change. In recent decades, institutions around the world, and particularly the European Commission, have issued programmatic documents, promoted informal science education initiatives and designed participatory actions through citizen science. Although inclusion is a central concept in citizen science, no rigorous studies have been conducted to assess the degree of inclusiveness of projects and to propose evidence-based measures for improvement. This project will address these challenges: SCITIZEN will generate the first standardised method for measuring inclusion in citizen science projects, using sociological research techniques, and will make it publicly available. A major original contribution will be the creation of an "inclusion scale" to assess the degree of inclusion of a certain project, being useful for informing ongoing and future projects and for understanding differences between systems (e.g. US and EU; local/regional/global levels; bottom-up and top-down designs). This will be integrated into an "online form" (open access) allowing different stakeholders worldwide the self- assessment of projects (e.g. promoters, funders, institutions, civil associations, policy makers). SCITIZEN will use that tool in a second phase of the action to evaluate inclusion in the European landscape of citizen science projects (past and present), and to inform the design of new projects. The inclusion scale is expected to be an additional indicator of project quality at the European level and beyond. In the medium term, this action aims to increase public participation in science with inclusion at its core.

Keywords: citizen science,public understanding of science,science engagement,public participation in science and technology