Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Engaging citizens as agents of change for sustainable food system transition with a novel gamified educational citizen science platform (FOODMISSION)

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: Research and Innovation actions
Countries involved: Norway,Germany,Greece,Spain,Italy,Netherlands,Poland,Slovenia
Call: Citizens’ science as an opportunity to foster the transition to sustainable food systems (HORIZON-CL6-2024-FARM2FORK-01, 2024)
Start date: 2025-01-01
End date: 2028-06-30
Duration (months): 42.0
Total project cost (EUR): 4997966.25
EU funding (EUR): 4997966.25
Participants: 10
Project status: SIGNED

Developing a fair, healthy, and environmentally friendly food system represents a key priority of the European Green Deal. This is expressed in particular through the ‘Farm to Fork Strategy’, which recognises the need to empower consumers to make informed, healthy and sustainable food choices and to reduce food loss and food waste. FOODMISSION aims therefore to use multi-actor and inclusive Transformation Labs and blend citizen science, learning and gamification approaches to understand citizens’ food practices for initiating behavioural changes, and ultimately engage and motivate to accelerate the uptake of more sustainable food behaviour. The project objectives are the following: (1) Setting up Transformation Labs that will support the project through all its phases from co-design to uptake, (2) Design of a comprehensive citizen science data framework, collecting and processing citizen-generated data on their food practices and development of a technical data infrastructure and data visualisation tools to support data sharing and analysis, (3) Design of a citizen motivation and engagement framework for empowering individual and collective change, (4) Co-development of a gamified educational virtual platform prototype and its content and activities, (5) Piloting and evaluation of the gamified educational virtual platform in 6 European countries, (6) Promotion of FOODMISSION’s key exploitable results and their impact to engage citizens for fair, inclusive, healthy, and sustainable food system in Europe and uptake of the outputs beyond the project and consortium. FOODMISSION will further contribute to the Food 2030 pathways for action. The interdisciplinary consortium is composed of 10 members based in 8 European countries, bringing together universities, innovative companies and various stakeholder organisations representing consumers, food retailers and food enterprises, and covering diverse socio-economic and demographic contexts.

Keywords: citizen science,education,gamification,transformation labs,sustainable and healthy food practices,impact assessment
Microscopic, Mesoscopic, and Macroscopic Approaches to Mitigate Micro- and Nano-plastics in the Food and Environment (3M-2MNP-FE)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Widening Participation and Strengthening the European Research Area
Programme: Widening participation and spreading excellence
Theme: Attracting and mobilising the best talents
Destination: Attracting and mobilising the best talents
Action type: Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions
Panel: Chemistry
Countries involved: Malta
Call: Fostering balanced brain circulation – ERA Fellowships (HORIZON-WIDERA-2022-TALENTS-04, 2022)
Start date: 2024-07-01
End date: 2026-12-31
Duration (months): 30.0
Total project cost (EUR): 221564.4
EU funding (EUR): 221564.4
Participants: 2
Project status: CLOSED

The proposal, “Microscopic, Mesoscopic, and Macroscopic Approaches to Mitigate Micro- and Nano-plastics in the Food and Environment (3M-2MNP-FE)” is an MSCA PF proposal to be hosted by the University of Malta for 24 months, wherein Dr. Floirendo Flores will be supervised by Dr. Sophie Marie Briffa. Following the 24-month fellowship, a non-academic placement (NAP) has been secured with commitment from Dr. Adrian C. Love (ACL) from AquaBioTech Group (ABT). Dr. Flores conducts research on microencapsulation of bioactive compounds and simulated digestion, whereas Dr. Briffa specializes on nanoparticles chemistry, synthesis, characterization, and environmental behavior. The co-mentor, Dr. Melissa Marie Formosa, has in vivo studies involving zebrafish larvae and currently has supply agreement with ABT. Plastic packaging polymers are a necessary component of food products that are often discarded in municipal solid waste treatment plants and landfills resulting in varying levels of degradation products. The degradation products are usually recalcitrant micro- and nanoparticles (MNPs) that enter aquatic environments and contaminate biota with potentially adverse health outcomes. In view of the pressing need to mitigate the environmental risks upon exposure to MNPs, an interdisciplinary approach combining polymer chemistry, food, nutritional, and animal sciences is being proposed to develop an environmentally sound enzymatic technology to treat MNPs. Enzymatic treatment can change MNP size and enhance biodegradability. New knowledge will be generated on in vitro and in vivo changes on enzyme-based gastrointestinal and antioxidant systems following exposure to enzymatically treated MNPs. Implementation of the work packages will help answer the research question: Does exposure to enzymatically treated MNPs co-digested with food reduce the toxicity risks of MNPs? Results of this project can lead to a new sustainable pollution control strategy.

Keywords: surface modification of microplastics,nanoplastics,enzyme treatment of polymers,food matrix,zebrafish larvae,toxicity
NONLINEAR DYNAMICS OF FLUCTUATING TWO-DIMENSIONAL MATERIALS IN ACTION (NCANTO)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Consolidator grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Products and Processes Engineering
Panel description: Product and process design, chemical, civil, environmental, mechanical, vehicle engineering, energy processes and relevant computational methods
Countries involved: Netherlands
Call: ERC CONSOLIDATOR GRANTS (ERC-2023-COG, 2023)
Start date: 2024-06-01
End date: 2029-05-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1999021.0
EU funding (EUR): 1999021.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Two-dimensional (2D) materials are unique platforms for studying fundamental science. They bridge the gap between the world of atomic scale dynamics and the world of macroscopic mechanical vibrations. Owing to their small size, they can enable exploration of research areas that lie at the forefront of classical and quantum technologies. But at the same time, their noisy and nonlinear nature limits their performance. This combination of fluctuations and nonlinearities brings to light a new regime of mechanics that has remained largely untapped, and that, if well-understood, can open a wide range of trajectories in high-performance sensing and lab-on-a chip devices. NCANTO aims at elucidating this strong interplay between nonlinearities and noise at the atomic scale, and will leverage the acquired knowledge to engineer 2D nanomechanical devices that (i) offer extreme frequency stability, and (ii) enable robust and highly-sensitive single-cell sensing. To realize this vision, I will explore the influence of a range of nonlinear dynamic phenomena on two important noise sources, namely frequency fluctuations and biological noise. My approach will combine state-of-the-art modelling and experimental techniques to deliver novel designs that utilize nonlinear dynamic phenomena at their core. These designs will quench frequency noise in 2D resonators for breakthrough performance on the one hand, and will enhance biological rhythms at the single-cell level for robust drug screening on the other. By linking stochastic dynamics, nanomechanics, nonlinear dynamics and structural optimization, I will develop a multidisciplinary research area that will enable a ground-breaking leap forward in the utilisation of 2D materials as nonlinear sensors in frequency-based metrology and bio-health. NCANTO will thus not only herald new frontiers in nanomechanics but will also open new routes towards engineering nanotools for rapid screening tests in drug development and personalised medicine.

Keywords: nanomechanics,2d materials,nonlinear dynamics,noise,frequency fluctuations,biological nanomotion
Things for Politics' Sake: Aesthetic Objects and Social Change (THINGSTIGATE)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: The Soci al World and Its Interactions
Panel description: Sociology, social psychology, education  sciences , communication  studies
Countries involved: Sweden
Call: ERC STARTING GRANTS (ERC-2021-STG, 2021)
Start date: 2023-03-01
End date: 2028-02-29
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1499586.0
EU funding (EUR): 1499586.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

THINGSTIGATE aims to theorize how aesthetic objects mediate sociopolitical transformation. In a world where affective imagination increasingly sways society and politics, it is urgent to grasp the link between imagination, emotions, and sociopolitical institutions. Art for social change, ‘socially engaged art’, is pertinent, but its theories now dwell on usefulness. Imbued in a post-object relational art tradition despite the material turn in humanities and social sciences, these theories overlook aesthetic objects’ role in social processes. Tackling this, THINGSTIGATE draws on empirical hypotheses to assess aesthetic objects as a pivot of imagination, emotions, institutions. It extends aesthetic cosmopolitanism in confronting the imagined community of the nation-state as an institution. How do aesthetic objects behave in social relations, instigate change through imagination, intervene in the nation-states’ institutionalizing paths? How can they transform the imaginaries of a specific nation-state, and of a world beyond the nation-states? The study’s novel interdisciplinary methodology dissects the making of sociopolitical cultures by empirically tracing socially engaged objects – physical and digital – while they are in action, via artistic practice-based research. A posited framework will link imagination, institutions, and a relational objects typology distilled from major archives worldwide. It is then tested in two quantitative and qualitative fieldwork streams: iterative – via Make Your Own Passport workshop series in highly diverse public spaces in Sweden, Italy, and USA– and longitudinal –via 1965 Setiap Hari, a transnational social media initiative for Indonesia. The study’s impacts are manifold: in opening up a new, theoretically grounded methodological field of artistic practice-based research, it will advance the discourse on humans' relations with others in sociopolitical imagination and institution, a long debate since antiquity, in art and beyond.

Keywords: socially engaged art,imagination and institution,emotions,aesthetic objects,boundary objects,social change,transformation,social movements,liminality,vernacularization,spheres of citizenship,materiality and immateriality,aesthetic cosmopolitanism
Joining the forces of Natural Killer Cells and Ferroptosis to treat Refractory Neuroblastoma (IronKiller)

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: Spain
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2021 (HORIZON-MSCA-2021-PF-01, 2021)
Start date: 2023-09-01
End date: 2025-08-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 165312.96
EU funding (EUR): 165312.96
Participants: 2
Project status: CLOSED

Neuroblastoma (NB), a rare paediatric solid tumour, accounts for 15% of childhood cancer deaths. Immunotherapy has improved the survival for haematological malignancies, but solid tumours remain a challenge. The high heterogeneity, low mutational load, and strong immunosuppressive tumour microenvironment (i-TME) have hindered the success of immunotherapy in NB. Recently, natural killer (NK) cells have stood as a promising immunotherapeutic tool, as they don’t depend on specific mutations. Still, clinical trials for NB show only modest results, proving further action is needed to overcome the iTME. Late findings show that refractory tumours often respond to Ferroptosis, a novel cell death mechanism that is highly immunogenic. Cancer cells undergoing ferroptosis release HMGB1 and other well-known recruiters of NK cells. Moreover, ferroptotic drugs can act through several mechanisms and can be adapted to patients with different tumour characteristics. The goal of IronKiller is to combine ferroptotic drugs with NK cell therapy to treat refractory NB, and to perform in silico modelling of the results to predict which patients would benefit from this novel therapy. I am an experienced biologist and engineer joining a clinical research group strong in immunotherapies. We will follow an in vitro-in vivo-in silico strategy that will cover a variety of disciplines, from basic biology and pre-clinical research, all the way to bioinformatics and machine learning. I will reinforce my experience in cell death mechanisms and translational research, and I will also acquire new knowledge and skills in the areas of cell immunotherapy and oncological mathematical modelling. The latter through a secondment at an academic institution. Along with the research work, the diverse training, management and communication activities planned, will play a key role in advancing my professional development towards becoming an independent academic group leader in translational cancer research.

Keywords: neuroblastoma,ferroptosis,natural killer cells,immunotherapy,mathematical modelling
Decoding the molecular basis of lateral root stem cell specification in plants: C-fern as a model system. (LAROSSE)

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: Belgium
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2021 (HORIZON-MSCA-2021-PF-01, 2021)
Start date: 2023-09-01
End date: 2025-08-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 191760.0
EU funding (EUR): 191760.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

To conquer land, vascular plants evolved a sophisticated root system, which consists of primary and lateral roots (LRs). The de novo LR organogenesis represents a major evolutionary innovation, which has provided sessile organisms like plants with the capacity to forage for water and nutrients. The host lab is a pioneer in demonstrating that LR formation requires de novo specification of stem cells inside the primary root. They also discovered that the early stages of LR initiation are regulated by an oscillatory mechanism where the phytohormone auxin plays a major role. Despite these advances, the exact molecular mechanisms underlying lateral root stem cell (LRSC) specification remain largely elusive and it is not known how these mechanisms emerged during plant evolution. To address these fundamental questions, I will use an emerging model system Ceratopteris richardii (C-fern), which is an evolutionary pivotal, yet underexplored model plant. Based on fossil records, ferns and seed plants diverged during the middle Devonian period from a common ancestor suggesting that several key regulators might be conserved among them, despite some differences in their root ontogeny. In C-fern, the formation of LRSCs is clearly visible at the anatomic level. C-fern has ancestral and possibly simpler mechanisms underlying LRSC specification. In this project, I aim to identify key transcription factors controlling LRSC specification in C-fern. To achieve this goal, I will combine my expertise in molecular and developmental biology with multidisciplinary approaches including single cell RNA sequencing, CRISPR/Cas9-based genome editing and top-notch confocal imaging. This project has a strong potential to introduce novel concepts in the field of plant stem cells and their evolution. It will also open new perspectives for me to become an independent researcher in the field of evo-devo of plant stem cells.

Keywords: lateral root development stem cell specification root development plant organogenesis root evolution fern ceratopteris richardii evo devo
Privacy-Preserving Security Cameras based on Metalenses (MetaCam)

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: Italy
Call: ERC PROOF OF CONCEPT GRANTS (ERC-2023-POC, 2023)
Start date: 2023-10-01
End date: 2025-03-31
Duration (months): 18.0
Total project cost (EUR): 150000.0
EU funding (EUR): 150000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Surveillance cameras are widely used by governments, businesses, and ordinary citizens to monitor private and public areas to deter crime and identify offenders. As of 2021, it was estimated that there are over 1 billion surveillance cameras worldwide. However, there are great concerns that continuous monitoring severely restricts people's privacy and freedom of movement. There have been reports of abuse of surveillance footage including by businesses and government institutions. Regulators, civil rights groups and citizens are thus rightly concerned about infringements on freedoms of speech and association, especially in this era of AI when monitoring, tracking, and profiling techniques have been made easier, cheaper and more accurate. An initial step in video scene analysis is pose estimation which enables monitoring the flux of people and detecting criminal actions or intent. Considering the privacy concerns of continuously recording citizens and automated image analysis, this project intends to develop a novel camera system that captures just enough detail required for pose estimation but excludes identifying information. Existing software methods of deidentifying videos require a clear video to be taken first, and so do not entirely solve this problem. Proposed experimental hardware methods that avoid this issue using lenses have bulky optics and a limited set of parameters. With MetaCam we will implement the optimized optical devices (metalenses) that allow ultimate control of all the light degrees of freedom. In this project, we will design and fabricate the metalenses and build an optical table prototype of the camera to demonstrate its secure privacy-preserving performance. Supported by business developers we will examine the business potential, and map and engage the stakeholders later required to get from a proof- of- concept to a market-ready product.
QUANTUM SYSTEM FOR POLARIZATION-BASED INTERNET NETWORKING (Q-SPIN)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Innovative Europe
Programme: The European Innovation Council (EIC)
Theme: EIC Transition
Destination: Open to supporting projects in all areas of science, technology,...
Action type: EIC actions
Countries involved: Italy
Call: Transition Open 2024 (HORIZON-EIC-2024-TRANSITION-01, 2024)
Start date: 2025-04-01
End date: 2028-03-31
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 3556690.43
EU funding (EUR): 2489683.3
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

The urgency of cybersecurity to protect business viability and personal digital privacy in the emerging quantum age cannot be overstated. Encrypted data, which has traditionally provided a layer of protection, is now at risk due to the emergence of quantum computing. The potential economic losses from such attacks are staggering, estimated to be over €2 trillion, nearly five times the global cost of cybercrime in 2022. The Q-SPIN innovation emerges from deep tech research in the QUANGO and SECRET projects, which were coordinated by the University of Padova, from which ThinkQuantum is a spinoff. QUANGO developed a novel approach that increased the speed of our polarization encoding source by 20x from 50MHz to 1GHz. The source also exhibits a world record intrinsic quantum bit error rate (IQBER) of <0.2% and high stability with no active recalibration for >24 hours. Q-SPIN will advance QUANGO’s results to achieve a full engineering model of the prepare and measure QKD system that includes a 2GHz source. Moreover, by exploiting the joint results from SECRET and QUANGO, Q-SPIN will also develop a high-speed source (>100MHz generation rate) of entangled photons for long-distance QKD. In the long term, this will extend the range of quantum communications and the protocol's security by enabling untrusted satellite sources. The Q-SPIN project is not just a technological innovation but also a potential game-changer in the market. We plan to perform business exploration, validate our business model, secure Q-SPIN’s IP, and establish our freedom to operate. Post-project, the technology will undergo further product development until commercialization. The successful market deployment of Q-SPIN products could lead to 32 organizations, including national health services, banks, and telecoms, adopting our solution by 2033. This would secure the patient records, financial data, communications, etc. for the estimated 43 million EU citizens these organizations will serve.

Keywords: quantum key distribution,quantum communication,quantum internet,quantum optics,quantum network,qkd,quantum crypto,quantum cryptography,cybersecurity