Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
How domain mimicry shapes genetic conflicts between hosts and viruses (EvoViralMimicry)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Consolidator grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Environmental B iology, Ecology  and E volution
Panel description: For all organisms : Ecology, biodiversity, environmental change , evolutionary biology, behavioural ecology, microbial ecology , marine biology, ecophysiology, theoretical developments and mod elling
Countries involved: Israel
Call: ERC CONSOLIDATOR GRANTS (ERC-2024-COG, 2024)
Start date: 2025-10-01
End date: 2030-09-30
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2000000.0
EU funding (EUR): 2000000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Viral mimicry is a prevalent evolutionary mechanism for the acquisition of host-protein domains in order to hijack cellular pathways. By leveraging the similarity between the original host and the mimicked domain, the viral mimic forms interactions with host proteins. This introduces genetic conflict since these interactions are advantageous for the virus and deleterious for the host. The host is limited in its capacity to avoid mimics because evolving to escape them can disrupt the host interactome. Elucidating the way in which hosts evolve in the face of mimicry, and the constraints placed on viral mimics, are central to understanding the evolution of genetic conflicts. To address these questions, we will uniquely combine advanced structural modelling, comparative interactomics, evolutionary analyses and functional validations to map the functions, interactions and constraints of viral mimics and their host-interacting proteins. Specifically, we will: (1) Map the landscape of mimicry occurrence in viral proteomes to find which domains are mimicked and which viral families tend to acquire such domains, (2) Characterize the cellular interactomes of both mimics and host-mimicked domains to identify shared targets between host and mimic, and to find mimic-specific interactions, pointing to neo-functionalization, (3) Study the sequence evolution of interface residues between mimics and their host targets, and (4) Characterize evolutionary mechanisms, such as gene duplication, that may be adaptive for the host or the virus. Using these novel techniques and integrative analyses, we will unravel the factors shaping the evolution of mimics and their resulting genetic conflicts with the host. These principles are important for understanding the evolution of mechanisms by which viruses acquire new functions, and ultimately for predicting zoonotic potential and viral emergence.

Keywords: evolution of host virus interactions,protein protein interactions,viral mimicry,genetic conflicts
Othering the Renaissance. Conceptualizing Foreigners, Slaves and Infidels in in Early Modern Political Thought (ca. 1520-1610) (OTHREN)

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,United States
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2021 (HORIZON-MSCA-2021-PF-01, 2021)
Start date: 2022-06-01
End date: 2025-05-31
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 265099.2
EU funding (EUR): 265099.2
Participants: 2
Project status: CLOSED

This research proposal studies how 16th century Renaissance Aristotelian authors theorized otherness and dealt with outcasts in their political works. The very idea of political community in early modern political philosophy is based on the view that, as stated by Aristotle in his Politics, some categories of people - women, foreigners, infidels, slaves, children – must be excluded from citizenship because they are considered ontologically different and, therefore, politically unequal. This makes some people outcasts of the political community and raises important questions: on which grounds are outcasts excluded from citizenship? What is their relationship to citizens? Which type of inequality does the exclusion of outcasts entail? Are there different forms of inequality at stake in the exclusion of others? OTHREN provides the first comprehensive study of how some 16th century Aristotelian thinkers theorized three figures of outcasts (foreigners, slaves and infidels) in their political thoughts and how this helped shape their ideas on such different minorities as Jews, Muslims and Amerindians. The proposal focuses especially on political works that were influenced by political Aristotelianism both in the humanist and scholastic traditions. These works are assessed against the backgrounds of Roman political thought (especially Cicero and Seneca), Roman law and the teachings of Christian anthropology that shaped early modern political thought.

Keywords: renaissance thought,history of political thought
Synthesis and Utilization of Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticles for more sustainable and durable cementitious composites (SynSilable)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Postdoctoral Fellowships
Action type: Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions
Panel: Information Science and Engineering
Countries involved: Belgium,Spain
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2021 (HORIZON-MSCA-2021-PF-01, 2021)
Start date: 2023-09-01
End date: 2025-10-31
Duration (months): 26.0
Total project cost (EUR): 175920.0
EU funding (EUR): 175920.0
Participants: 5
Project status: SIGNED

The current project purposes to produce ultra-high performance concrete, especially at early age, and also to further reduce cement consumption using novel nanotechnology techniques. Due to the fact that concrete is the most important building material and also one of the largest sources of air pollution, it is necessary to improve its performance. The slow process of increasing the strength of concrete and barriers to the use of nanomaterials justify the need to use new technology. To achieve this, using mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs) have been considered due to their high chemical activity and suitable dispersibility. In this study using MSNs in concrete will be dealt with for the first time. MSNs are synthesized and optimized in this study and then will be used in different amounts in cement composites to examine the micro structure, durability and mechanical properties. The methodology of the project is divided into three section: 1- Synthesizing and investigating MSNs 2- Examining the properties of cement paste containing MSNs 3- Investigating of properties of concrete containing MSN and doing LCA. Conducting the project in KU Leuven with its global facilities, working with prof. Ozlem, and also interdisciplinary nature of this study, will give the applicant this opportunity to be trained in different terms including becoming familiar with equipment, synthesizing, analyzing the micro structure of concrete, and managing project. These help him to fill his research gap. Furthermore, given the two-way science interaction nature of this project, it can open a new research path at KU Leuven. Considering the applicant’s current experience in concrete and the experience he will gain in this project, it is expected that he will become an independent scientist in concrete chemistry at academia or industry. The output of the project can lead to the production of sustainable products in line with EU policies, reduce project time and improve the performance of concrete.

Keywords: concrete nano silica mesoporous silica nanoparticles,cement based materials synthesis mechanical properties durability repair mortar sustainable products nano technology
Reconstructing enzymes for novel nitrogen-nitrogen bond forming chemistry (ReCNNSTRCT)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Synthetic Chemistry and Materials
Panel description: New materials and new synthetic approaches, structure -properties relations, solid state chemistry, molecular architecture, organic chemistry
Countries involved: Netherlands
Call: ERC STARTING GRANTS (ERC-2022-STG, 2022)
Start date: 2023-01-01
End date: 2027-12-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1500000.0
EU funding (EUR): 1500000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Nitrogen-nitrogen (N-N) bonds have fascinating structural and functional properties, are ubiquitously found in diverse pharmaceuticals and fine chemicals, and represent important key structural motifs in diverse natural products, endowing them with potent biological activities. However, traditional chemical procedures to synthesize N-N bond-containing compounds are often difficult to realize, costly and environmentally unfriendly. In addition, the formation of intermolecular N-N linkages is particularly difficult and remains a mostly unaddressed problem in chemistry. ReCNNSTRCT will address this challenge by decoding novel reaction chemistries from the underexploited family of N-N bond-forming enzymes (NNZYMES), while tackling reactions that are difficult to realize by traditional chemical approaches and currently not feasible by enzyme catalysis. As such, ReCNNSTRCT aims to break new ground in chemical synthesis: it will develop an enzymatic toolbox for versatile N-N bond-forming reaction chemistries by exploring naturally promiscuous and redesigned NNZYMES for diverse intra- and intermolecular, as well as non-natural N-N-bond formations. To achieve this, ReCNNSTRCT will combine methodologies from enzyme catalysis and evolution, genome mining and the latest achievements in bioinformatics. In this way, ReCNNSTRCT will not only establish the chemistry performed by the enzymes, it will also elucidate enzyme structures, catalytic mechanisms, and design biocatalytic cascades to showcase the potential of tailored NNZYMES. ReCNNSTRCT will thus revolutionize our synthetic strategies and aims to substantially contribute to a ‘greener’ chemical industry by creating versatile catalytic platforms for N-N bond formation, leading to streamlined routes to high-value chemicals. Beyond this groundbreaking direct impact in the field of enzyme catalysis, ReCNNSTRCT will boost the clinical and research environment by providing new biocatalysts for future drug discovery efforts

Keywords: biocatalysis protein engineering enzymology catalysis enzyme promiscuity nitrogen nitrogen bonds
Silicon solar cells with Low Environmental footprint and Advanced Interfaces (SiLEAN-HopOn)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Widening Participation and Strengthening the European Research Area
Programme: Widening participation and spreading excellence
Theme: Improved access to Excellence
Destination: Improved access to Excellence
Action type: Research and Innovation actions
Countries involved: Germany,Türkiye
Call: Hop on Facility (HORIZON-WIDERA-2023-ACCESS-06, 2023)
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 383308.75
EU funding (EUR): 383308.75
Participants: 2
Project status: CLOSED

The SiLEAN project, involving 2 research institutes, one University partner, 4 SMEs and 1 industry partner, deals with the development of advanced innovations to tackle the major drawbacks of silicon heterojunction solar cell technology, namely the high energy and material demand for Si wafer manufacturing, limited current generation, and the consumption of scarce materials like silver, bismuth and indium. Within the scope of the project, we will directly grow the wafers from the gas phase with low temperature processes, apply alternative passivation concepts that show higher optical transparency, develop indium-free contact layers and apply silver and bismuth-free metallization with all-in-one cell interconnection and encapsulation. We aim to achieve >25.5% solar cell efficiency and >23.5% module efficiency with 50% lower costs for Si wafers and contacting, as well as up to 75% lower carbon footprint. All processes applied allow upscaling to larger sizes as well as high manufacturing throughput. Eventually, the developments of SiLEAN will pave the way for a new, lean, generation of heterojunction solar cell technology that will both increment the energy conversion efficiency and unlock production at terawatt-scale.

Keywords: silicon carbide,transition metal,heterojunction,shj solar cells,epitaxial wafers,metal free,low environmental impact,nanotexture,mini modules
STrain ENgineered Spatial light mOdulators based on 2D semiconductors (StEnSo)

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: Spain
Call: ERC PROOF OF CONCEPT GRANTS (ERC-2024-POC, 2024)
Start date: 2024-12-01
End date: 2026-05-31
Duration (months): 18.0
Total project cost (EUR): 150000.0
EU funding (EUR): 150000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

The main goal of StEnSo is to explore a new concept of spatial light modulators based on strain engineering of two-dimensional semiconducting materials. Spatial light modulators allow for the creation of two-dimensional light patterns and have found many applications in photonics: image projection, holography, aberrations correction, laser surgery, optical tweezers, etc. These devices typically consist of an array of pixels that individually control the phase or amplitude of light passing through it or reflecting off it. In StEnSo I will exploit the large refractive index tunability of 2D semiconducting materials upon mechanical deformation, studied in my ERC StG 2D-TOPSENSE, to fabricate a new concept of spatial light modulator device.

Keywords: light modulation 2d materials strain engineering flat optics
Leveraging data and AI to empower citizens to make healthier and more sustainable food choices (WiseFood)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness
Programme: Food, Bioeconomy Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment
Theme: Bio-Environment
Destination: Fair, healthy and environmentally-friendly food systems from primary production to consumption
Action type: Innovation actions
Countries involved: Greece,Belgium,Ireland,Hungary,Slovenia,Serbia,Netherlands
Call: Creating smart and attractive tools to enhance healthy and sustainable food provision, eating and treating of food at home (HORIZON-CL6-2024-FARM2FORK-01, 2024)
Start date: 2025-01-01
End date: 2027-12-31
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 3100302.03
EU funding (EUR): 2848728.69
Participants: 9
Project status: SIGNED

WiseFood aims at developing smart digital applications that will empower citizens to make healthier and more sustainable food choices. It will leverage state-of-the-art Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques and tools, combining the factual knowledge representation capacity of Knowledge Graphs with the natural language understanding, generation, and reasoning abilities of Large Language Models. These will allow us to build novel tools that democratize access to reliable food-related information and go beyond the current levels of personalization and contextualization offered by existing food recommenders. The developed applications will be user-friendly and integrate seamlessly into daily life, not requiring specialized IT skills or devices. Our goal is to bridge the divide between knowledge, intention, and action with end-to-end intelligent solutions. A human-in-the-loop approach with food domain experts, including nutritionists, will be applied to ensure alignment with national policies and guidelines. Living Labs implementing a multi-actor approach are foreseen to co-create the envisioned solutions. These will take place in three different countries, Ireland, Hungary, and Slovenia, with the latter being an already established and operational short food supply chain Living Lab. The outcomes of WiseFood will enhance the overall food ecosystem, by promoting healthier dietary habits, reducing the ecological footprint of food consumption, and fostering a culture of well-informed and eco-conscious citizens.

Keywords: food recommender systems,digital recipes,information extraction,living labs
Artificial placenta with enhanced hemocompatibility (HemoArtPlac) (HemoArtPlac)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Widening Participation and Strengthening the European Research Area
Programme: Widening participation and spreading excellence
Theme: Improved access to Excellence
Destination: Improved access to Excellence
Action type: Research and Innovation actions
Countries involved: Germany,Portugal
Call: Hop on Facility (HORIZON-WIDERA-2023-ACCESS-06, 2023)
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 657841.25
EU funding (EUR): 657841.25
Participants: 2
Project status: SIGNED

HemoArtPlac complements to the ArtPlac project that proposes a radical breakthrough in the treatment of sick newborn infants by the development of a pumpless artificial placenta. The lifecycle of current devices is limited by congestion from blood clots or catheter-associated bloodstream infections. Standard systemic anticoagulation and antibiotic approaches have a high risk of, e.g., intraventricular bleeding and antimicrobial resistance. To mitigate these live-threatening risks, HemoArtPlac will develop multidimensional approach for surface modification of ArtPlac devices that reduces clotting-associated complications and bacterial contaminations, thus simplifying intensive care of critically ill newborns and improving their survival, as well as neurological outcome. The widening partner has extensive experience in surface modification and fabrication of biocompatible and biofunctional coatings and unique state of the art facility for development and modification of biomaterials. They will develop novel, customized multifunctional covalent functionalization, which mimics the anti-clotting properties of natural vessels and includes immobilization of antithrombin-heparin complex and incorporation of nitric oxide releasing component. Of note, the designed methodologies and coatings are applicable to a wide range of biomedical blood-contacting consumables and devices and thus, HemoArtPlac will have impact beyond the ArtPlac and the neonatology.

Keywords: neonatology,fetal medicine,artificial placenta,combined lung and kidney support device,hemocompatibility
Advanced simulations in electrocatalysis for efficient production of C3+ by carbon dioxide reduction (DESCRIPTOR)

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: Spain
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2021 (HORIZON-MSCA-2021-PF-01, 2021)
Start date: 2022-05-01
End date: 2024-04-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 175608.96
EU funding (EUR): 175608.96
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The climate change has raised concerns about closing the carbon cycle by converting CO2 and renewable electricity to chemically stored energy in the form of fuels and commodity chemicals. Among these, long-chain hydrocarbons and alcohols are more attractive because of their high energy density and value. Recently, reconstructed oxide-derived Cu (OD-Cu) catalysts have shown the potential to produce multicarbon species at lower overpotentials. However, few simulations have addressed the formation mechanism of these compounds due to the complex dynamics of this system under high currents, and the exact site for the excellent OD-Cu catalytic performance remains to be discovered. The DESCRIPTOR project aims to obtain the first generation of CO2 electroreduction catalyst with useful faradaic efficiencies towards C3+ products by employing computational simulations based on Density Functional Theory (DFT) and augmented by Machine Learning techniques. Firstly, suitable structures for the OD-Cu materials will be obtained through large scale Molecular Dynamics simulations based on Machine Learning potentials, by screening the most common ensembles identified via graph theory. Secondly, the mechanism towards C3+ will be identified via jDFTx scheme, and descriptors of activity and selectivity will be found through dimensionality reduction techniques. Finally, to assess and compare to experimental work from our collaborators, the contribution of the solvent/electrolyte and effect of experimental parameters will be investigated via ab initio Molecular Dynamics and microkinetic modelling. The structures will be characterized via simulations of X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy, and Raman spectra, etc. In summary, the outcome of DESCRIPTOR will have a direct scientific and social impact, by increasing the basic knowledge on catalysis of achieving renewable fuel sources and improving EU’s industrial competitiveness within new technologies for CO2 reduction.

Keywords: electrochemical carbon dioxide reduction reaction,machine learning potential based molecular dynamics,density functional theory,microkinetic modelling,ab initio molecular dynamics
Versatile optical frequency comb (versacomb)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Proof of concept grants
Action type: ERC actions
Countries involved: Belgium
Call: ERC PROOF OF CONCEPT GRANTS2 (ERC-2022-POC2, 2022)
Start date: 2023-09-01
End date: 2025-02-28
Duration (months): 18.0
Total project cost (EUR): 150000.0
EU funding (EUR): 150000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Frequency combs are optical sources that can be used as rulers. Any unknown frequency can be very precisely measured by comparing it to the nearest tooth of the comb. The technology has revolutionized metrology and spectroscopy among others and its inventors were awarded the Nobel Prize in 2005. To obtain a frequency comb, a periodic optical pattern must be generated. There are different ways of forming optical patterns and different technologies are used, depending on the required comb spacing (which corresponds to the repetition-rate of the pattern). For example, high repetition rate combs used for calibration of astronomical spectrographs, while low repetition rates are used for spectroscopy or ranging. We propose to fabricate a completely novel device whose repetition rate can be tuned over three orders of magnitude, covering most applications of frequency combs. The device would merge the advantages of the existing technologies, in terms of power and stability. We expect our device to have a strong impact on the market of frequency comb generators and will investigate different paths towards commercialization of the prototype.