Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Aquatic Imaginations: Interrelation of Fiction and Policy in Shaping a Sustainable Future (IDRA)

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,Norway
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2023 (HORIZON-MSCA-2023-PF-01, 2023)
Start date: 2024-11-01
End date: 2027-10-31
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 265099.2
EU funding (EUR): 265099.2
Participants: 4
Project status: SIGNED

Water-related issues such as floods and droughts, water rising and water pollution, are global concerns and have all been central targets of Chinese Governmental policy implementation in the last decades (Lee 2021). Starting with the recognition that finding solutions to water related problems is vital for humanity’s present and future, this study examines the Chinese case as extreme rather than simply exemplary, one particularly significant for its global ramifications. Building on studies on ecocriticism and Chinese literature and on Climate Fiction in China, IDRA wants to explore the interplay between literary studies and policy studies focusing on what I refer to as “aquatic imaginations”. This term alludes to both governmental policies marked by a promissory tone aimed at building the best of all possible worlds, one in which “lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets” (Xi 2022), and the fictional representation of these policies’ aftermath, whether direct or figurative, which end up expressing environmental preoccupations and “ecoambiguities” (Thornber 2012). By collecting a large corpus of representatives water-related fictional works from the Sinophone world and analyzing them through an ecocritical lens, IDRA's first section will demonstrate how these representations of ravaged oceans, magical tides, rising sea levels and polluted rivers, imbued in varying degrees with a dystopian undertone suffused with hope, represent a measurement of public anxiety towards the limited foresight of the previously mentioned political visions. IDRA's second section, also focusing on present and future water-related issues, builds on the CoFUTUREs methods to approach “aquatic imaginations” from a different angle: its goal is to showcase, differently to what was seen above, how literary studies can inform policy studies related to the environmental crisis and raise public awareness.

Keywords: sinophone literature,blue humanities,futurescapes,water policy,strategic foresight
Sustainable Nanocellulose and Amyloid-Based Materials for Biodegradable Packaging and Smart Agricultural Applications (SUSNAMU)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Staff Exchanges
Action type: Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions
Panel: Environment and Geosciences
Countries involved: Germany,Spain,Italy,Argentina,Colombia,United Kingdom,Croatia,Brazil,Senegal
Call: MSCA Staff Exchanges 2024 (HORIZON-MSCA-2024-SE-01, 2024)
Start date: 2026-01-01
End date: 2029-12-31
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1646142.86
EU funding (EUR): 1633260.0
Participants: 13
Project status: SIGNED

Nanocellulose and beta-amyloids proteins derived from waste byproducts, such as banana pseudostems, palm oil empty fruit bunches, discarded milk, and tofu production residues, will be used to fabricate films as alternatives to conventional plastics. These films will be produced using casting and electrospinning techniques, combined with other natural biopolymers, including lignin, metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), and bioadditives. Films will be surface engineered with the spray layer by layer technique for the precise control of their surface properties.The films will serve applications in both food packaging and agriculture. For agricultural use, mulch and greenhouse cover films will be designed to exhibit selective gas transport, controlled sunlight transparency, and limited water permeability. Additionally, they will be engineered to release carbon dots infused with nutrients and pesticides into the soil, aiming to improve crop yields and reduce weed colonization. In food packaging, advanced bioelectronics will be integrated to detect pH changes indicative of food spoilage. The inclusion of anthocyanins and photosensitizers will impart antibacterial properties to the films. Smart strategies will be employed to extend the shelf life of packaged food. Furthermore, artificial intelligence (AI) will be utilized to optimize material properties for enhanced performance.The films will be scaled up in a pilot plant and tested in agricultural fields and packaging applications. To achieve the ambitious goals of SUSNAMU—replacing fossil-based plastics in packaging and agriculture while mitigating global microplastic contamination—a diverse global consortium has been assembled. This consortium spans Europe (Germany, Croatia, Spain, Italy, UK), Latin America (Argentina, Brazil, Colombia), and Africa (Senegal), bringing together complementary expertise from academic, industrial institutions, necessary for the successful development and implementation of the project's goals.

Keywords: biodegradable plastics ecofriendly packaging sustainable agriculture microplastic reduction renewable resources
Recycling versus loss in the marine nitrogen cycle: controls, feedbacks, and the impact of expanding low oxygen regions (RECLESS)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Synergy grants
Action type: ERC actions
Countries involved: Austria,United States,Sweden,Denmark
Call: ERC SYNERGY GRANTS (ERC-2024-SyG, 2024)
Start date: 2025-05-01
End date: 2031-04-30
Duration (months): 72.0
Total project cost (EUR): 9905916.0
EU funding (EUR): 9905916.0
Participants: 4
Project status: SIGNED

RECLESS will predict how ongoing ocean deoxygenation impacts microbial nitrogen transformations and thereby the future availability of nitrogen to support oceanic primary production and carbon sequestration. Microbial conversions of bioavailable nitrogen to dinitrogen in oxygen-depleted waters currently account for ~30% of the marine nitrogen loss, despite oxygen-depleted waters making up just 0.1% of the ocean volume. Models predict accelerating expansion of oxygen depletion, which entails increased nitrogen loss with negative impacts on ecosystem function and oceanic carbon sequestration, as well as an associated production of greenhouse-forcing nitrous oxide. However, biogeochemical ocean models currently fail to reproduce fundamental aspects of the microbial nitrogen transformations observed experimentally, including how nitrogen is either recycled or lost in oxygen-depleted waters. This reflects fundamental knowledge gaps concerning the environmental controls on growth, mortality, and activity of microbial populations, which preclude robust model predictions. RECLESS breaks new ground by synergistically integrating innovative oceanographic, biogeochemical, ecophysiological, and model-based investigations to close these gaps. With unprecedented in situ ecophysiological experiments using novel custom-made instrumentation as a cornerstone, RECLESS will identify key organisms, quantify their response to environmental controls, and construct the first comprehensive global microbial ecosystem model for oxygen-depleted marine systems. This model will enable robust predictions of how ocean deoxygenation affects nitrogen cycling and loss, greenhouse gas production, and interactions with the carbon cycle. Thus, RECLESS will transform our understanding of the present and future marine nitrogen cycle and its climate interactions, and set new standards for the integration of microbial processes in global biogeochemical analyses.

Keywords: marine nitrogen cycle,ocean deoxygenation,microbial ecophysiology,single cell activity,ecosystem modelling,ocean modelling
A Darker Shade of Whiteness: The Italian Ethnic Press in Louisiana and the Making of Racial Awareness in The Gulf South (1877-1945) (DaShoW)

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: 2023-11-01
End date: 2026-10-31
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 265099.2
EU funding (EUR): 265099.2
Participants: 3
Project status: SIGNED

The stereotypical representations of Italians as racially inferior and dangerous for public security saturated the American public discourse at the end of the Reconstruction (1877) and tragically materialized in 1891 when 11 Italian Americans were lynched in New Orleans. The racial landscape of the Crescent City is exemplary of the Italian migrants’ struggle for acceptance across the South and can be fruitfully used as a testbed to study the intertwining of diaspora and race both in the Gulf South and nationally. Through the study of the public discourse emerging from rare and still understudied Italian-language ethno-cultural periodicals published in Louisiana and widely distributed outside the state, DaShoW illuminates how the shifting discourses on Africans, African Americans, Native Americans published in the Italian-language periodical press contributed to ‘manufacture, assert and defend the Italian race’ within one of the largest diasporic Italian communities in the United States. The project will demonstrate how the racialization of Southern Italians in New Orleans and Louisiana was the result of the appropriation of stereotypes rooted in the North/South post-Risorgimento divide transposed from Italy and rhetorical strategies ascribable to the Italian Positive School of Criminology. DaShoW will study the rhetorical and practical strategies through which the Italian communities of Louisiana and the Gulf South negotiated their racial standing between 1877, which ended the Reconstruction thus paving the way for the deprival of African Americans’ voting rights, and the formation of an early Southern civil right movement (1945). DaSHoW promotes a comprehensive framing of the Italian diasporic presence in the racialized geographical, social and cultural context of the Gulf South and aims to preserve and popularize perishable documents for the study of Italian emigration through the digitization of primary sources and the production of digital learning tools.

Keywords: history of italian migrations,italian ethno cultural press in north america italians in the american south,racial positioning,blackness,whiteness
Mechanical Basis of Genome Organisation through INO80 (MebaGINO)

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: Germany
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2024 (HORIZON-MSCA-2024-PF-01, 2024)
Start date: 2025-04-01
End date: 2027-03-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 217965.12
EU funding (EUR): 217965.12
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Recent breakthroughs found that mechanical features of gene promoters influence nucleosome positioning through ATP-dependent chromatin remodeling enzymes. This finding challenges classical models of DNA-sequence-dependent histone recruitment. While mechanisms for the translation of DNA’s physical parameters to nucleosome positions are debated, their experimental validation is still pending. MebaGINO aims to address this fundamental gap in knowledge. Taking advantage of recent advances in time-resolved CryoEM, I will answer the following research question: What is the biophysical mechanism underlying the influence of DNA mechanics on nucleosome positioning by INO80? I will use the INO80 chromatin remodeler as a model system to understand how nucleosomes are positioned adjacent to gene promoters featuring specific mechanical patterns. Firstly, I will interrogate how the nucleosome translocation process will be stalled through substitution of ATP with ATP-analogues on DNA with varying stiffness. From these experiments, I will obtain molecular structures via single-particle CryoEM. Next, I will obtain molecular structures from short-lived states using time-resolved CryoEM. For this, I will contribute to the development of an automated platform for CryoEM sample freezing which will be made available to the scientific community via EMBL's Electron Microscopy facility. Finally, I will build a biophysical model explaining the influence of DNA mechanics on INO80’s translocation process. Thus, I will provide novel views onto the mechanical basis of gene regulation which are relevant beyond fundamental research as for example during cancer development. During this project, I will receive extensive training on cutting-edge structural biology instrumentation while contributing with my nanotechnology skills. Combined with my biophysics background, this fellowship will enable me to establish an interdisciplinary research group focused on structural biophysics.

Keywords: method development
Nutritional Protein from Sustainably Sourced Seaweed (OceanPro)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Innovative Europe
Programme: The European Innovation Council (EIC)
Theme: EIC Accelerator
Destination: Other destinations
Action type: EIC actions
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call: EIC Accelerator 2024 - Short application (HORIZON-EIC-2024-ACCELERATOR-01, 2024)
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2500000.0
EU funding (EUR): 2500000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

The global demand for protein is increasing (projected to increase by 37% by 2030), with the EU alone importing 17M tonnes of protein from crops annually. This is driven by population growth and shifting dietary preferences. Traditional protein sources, particularly animal-based, are facing sustainability challenges. Livestock production accounts for 14.5% of GHG emissions, consumes 80% of global agricultural land, and contributes to deforestation and water pollution. Although, innovative plant-based products are in the market and closely resemble the taste and texture of animal-based proteins, exact replication is difficult. Additionally, plant-based products often lack the complete nutritional profile of animal-based proteins. Plant-based protein sources, once seen as a popular alternative, are now facing declining popularity due to growing concerns about extensive processing and additives used, as well as their own negative environmental impacts, raising concerns about the sustainability of plant-based protein production. OCEANIUM holds the potential to revolutionise the food system, by providing the first zero-waste, scalable biorefinery process based on green-chemistry principles to extract world first protein concentrate from sustainably sourced seaweed to obtain a unique, high-value, food ingredient with high nutritional value and umami flavours for food applications (initially sports/performance and elderly nutrition). Seaweed cultivation requires no land, soil, freshwater, or fertilisers, making it a low-impact alternative to traditional protein sources. OCEANIUM's innovation will create new job opportunities while contributing to the economic development of coastal communities as well as to secure value chains and contribute to EU protein independence. Within OceanPro project, OCEANIUM will mature, validate and demonstrate the technology and product in real environment, positioning it for market launch in 2027.

Keywords: biorefinery,sustainable food system,seaweed protein,farmed seaweed,edible algae,food ingredients,protein food ingredients,food security,food quality,food safety
Enhancing Earth Observation capabilities of the Eratosthenes Centre of Excellence on Disaster Risk Reduction through Artificial Intelligence (AI-OBSERVER)

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: Coordination and support actions
Countries involved: Cyprus,Germany,Italy
Call: Twinning (HORIZON-WIDERA-2021-ACCESS-03, 2021)
Start date: 2022-10-01
End date: 2025-09-30
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1489379.25
EU funding (EUR): 1489379.0
Participants: 4
Project status: SIGNED

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has a major impact on many sectors and its influence is predicted to expand rapidly in the coming years. One area where there is considerable untapped potential for AI is in the field of Earth Observation, where it can be used to manage large datasets, find new insights in data and generate new products and services. AI is one of the missing core areas that need to be integrated in the EO capabilities of the ERATOSTHENES Centre of Excellence (ECoE). AI-OBSERVER project aims to significantly strengthen and stimulate the scientific excellence and innovation capacity, as well as the research management and administrative skills of the ECoE, through several capacity building activities on AI for EO applications in the Disaster Risk Reduction thematic area, upgrading and modernising its existing department of Resilient Society, as well as its research management and administration departments, and assisting the ECoE to reach its long-term objective of raised excellence on AI for EO on environmental hazards. A close and strategic partnership between the ECoE from Cyprus (Widening country) and two internationally top-class leading research institutions, the German Research Centre for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) from Germany and the University of Rome Tor Vergata (UNITOV) from Italy, will be achieved, leading to a research exploratory project on the application of AI on EO for multi-hazard monitoring and assessment in Cyprus. Moreover, CELLOCK Ltd. (CLK), the project’s industrial partner, will lead the commercialisation, exploitation and product development aspects of AI-OBSERVER and its exploratory project outputs. All outputs will be disseminated and communicated to stakeholders, the research community, and the public, assisting the ECoE to accomplish its exploitation goals, by creating strong links with various stakeholders from academia and industry in Cyprus and beyond, that ECoE will capitalise on, long after the end of the project.

Keywords: artificial intelligence,disaster risk reduction,capacity building,scientific and innovation capacity,research management and administration skills,outreach,exploitation
DEVELOPING AND VALIDATING WEWALK’S SITUATIONALLY AWARE WEARABLE NAVIGATION SYSTEM (SAWNS) (SAWNS)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Innovative Europe
Programme: The European Innovation Council (EIC)
Theme: EIC Accelerator
Destination: Other destinations
Action type: EIC actions
Countries involved: Türkiye
Call: EIC Accelerator 2024 - Short application (HORIZON-EIC-2024-ACCELERATOR-01, 2024)
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2000000.0
EU funding (EUR): 2000000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

There are 43m people globally living with blindness/severe visual impairment (VI) with another 253m suffering from moderate to severe VI, including 30m Visually Impaired Individuals (VIIs) across Europe. VI affects wellbeing and an individuals' ability to navigate independently and safely, causing anxiety, social isolation, and unemployment. 97% of VIIs prefer being independent although solutions currently available such as guide dogs and existing head mounted devices are either ineffective or too costly. Following its successful Smart Cane (a TIME Best Invention) that reached thousands of users in 60 countries, WeWALK is developing its Situationally Aware Wearable Navigation System (SAWNS), a hardware and software assistive technology product to improve the lives of VIIs. The hardware is an over ear wearable device with cameras that capture the user’s surroundings and communicates back to them through voice instructions on obstacles, signs, and important wayfinding information. The software uses computer vision developed by Imperial College London allowing for object detection, text recognition, pose detection, simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM), removing the previous reliance on GPS. SLAM is beneficial when compared to GPS as it can be used indoors effectively and does not require external technologies such as satellites. This intelligent software allows the hardware to communicate various features to the user such as bus detection in a queue and identification of bus stops, house numbers, street signs and any potential obstacles. The SAWNS has the potential to be the product that changes the assistive technologies industry for VIIs once fully developed, validated, and commercialised. EIC funding will help speed up this process and achieve this much earlier than would otherwise be possible. Thereby our project seeks to empower VIIs by assisting their safe navigation of public spaces which will help reduce social isolation and unemployment.

Keywords: visual impairment,assistive technology,navigation system,wearable device,computer vision,object detection,hazard awareness,wayfinding,simultaneous localization and mapping slam algorithms