Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
SUPERCRITICAL CO2 CYCLE FOR FLEXIBLE AND SUSTAINABLE SUPPORT TO THE ELECTRICITY SYSTEM (sCO2-Flex)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Societal Challenges
Programme: Secure, clean and efficient energy
Theme: Low-cost, low-carbon energy supply
Action type: Research and Innovation actions
Countries involved: Germany,Germany,Italy,Italy,Italy,Spain,Belgium,France,France,Czechia
Call: Highly flexible and efficient fossil fuel power plants (H2020-LCE-2017-RES-CCS-RIA, 2017)
Start date: 2018-01-01
End date: 2021-06-30
Duration (months): 42.0
Total project cost (EUR): 5630855.0
EU funding (EUR): 5630855.0
Participants: 12
Project status: CLOSED

Current fossil-fuel power plants have been designed to operate in base-load conditions, i.e to provide a constant power output. However, their role is changing, due to the growing share of renewables, both in and outside the EU. Fossil-fuel plants will increasingly be expected to provide fluctuating back-up power, to foster the integration of intermittent renewable energy sources and to provide stability to the grid. However, these plants are not fit to undergo power output fluctuations. In this context, sCO2-Flex consortium addressees this challenge by developing and validating (at simulation level the global cycle and at relevant environment boiler, heat exchanger(HX) and turbomachinery) the scalable/modular design of a 25MWe Brayton cycle using supercritical CO2, able to increase the operational flexibility and the efficiency of existing and future coal and lignite power plants. sCO2-Flex will develop and optimize the design of a 25MWe sCO2 Brayton cycle and of its main components (boiler, HX, turbomachinery, instrumentation and control strategies) able to meet long-term flexibility requirements, enabling entire load range optimization with fast load changes, fast start-ups and shut-downs, while reducing environmental impacts and focusing on cost-effectiveness. The project, bringing the sCO2 cycle to TRL6, will pave the way to future demonstration projects (from 2020) and to commercialization of the technology (from 2025). Ambitious exploitation and dissemination activities will be set up to ensure proper market uptake. Consortium brings together ten partners, i.e academics (experts in thermodynamic cycle/control/simulation, heat exchanging, thermoelectric power, materials), technology providers (HX, Turbomachinery) and power plant operator (EDF-coordinator) covering the whole value chain, constituting an interdisciplinary group of experienced partners, each of them providing its specific expertise and contributing to the achievement of the project’s objectives.

Keywords: supercritical sco2,thermodynamic cycle,flexibility,efficiency,brayton,boiler,turbomachinery,heat exchanger
Language-Affect Interface in Parent-Infant Communication (MultiPic)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: Marie-Sklodowska-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Individual Fellowships (IF)-Reintegration panel
Action type: Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions
Panel: Social Sciences and Humanities
Countries involved: Norway
Call: Individual Fellowships (H2020-MSCA-IF-2017, 2017)
Start date: 2019-01-15
End date: 2021-03-17
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 196400.4
EU funding (EUR): 196400.4
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Language, gesture, and affect are the three musketeers of parent-child interaction. Although affect, our experience with emotions, plays a key role in communication, its developmental trajectory in the beginning of life remains unclear. How do infants develop affect recognition that corresponds to their native environment? How do they perceive affect from non-native cultures? How does language interact with affect perception, and how does infants’ (multi-) linguistic and cultural experience play a role? To further our understanding toward these questions, I propose to experimentally examine infants’ affectual development and its interaction with language in the first year after birth, and specifically, adopting a preferential looking paradigm where infants will watch videos of happy/angry expressions from various cultures along with languages that match or mismatch with the correspondent culture. This exciting project bridges psycholinguistic and sociolinguistic approaches. It discusses three main topics: infant culture-specific affectual development, language-affect interface, and the effect of multilingualism on affectual perception. In this project, I will also investigate the influence of social and linguistic factors on affectual perception, examining whether multilingual heightened sensitivity would extend to the affectual domain. Europe is changing more than ever towards a complex social environment, with interactions between languages and cultures. I hope to enhance European scientific excellence by contributing to a better understanding of infant culture-specific affectual development in various linguistic contexts. As a direct consequence, the outcome of the project may change parental attitude towards a diverse linguistic and cultural environment.

Keywords: bilingualism,language,affect,infant,development
Lowering the environmental impact of fresh fish logistics (Cool Wool Box)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Industrial Leadership
Programme: Innovation in SMEs
Action type: SME instrument
Countries involved: Iceland
Call: SME instrument (H2020-SMEInst-2018-2020-1, 2019)
Start date: 2019-08-01
End date: 2019-11-30
Duration (months): 4.0
Total project cost (EUR): 71429.0
EU funding (EUR): 50000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Each year around 6.3 million tons of fish are distributed around Europe. Maintaining the cold chain during distribution is critical to avoid spoilage and guarantee freshness, ensuring the highest quality fish is delivered. Expanded polystyrene (EPS) boxes are usually used with this purpose. However, they are a major threat to the environment, since they are manufactured from fossil fuels and are used as single-use disposable packaging, having thus a high carbon footprint. Moreover, due to the low recycling rate of EPS, most of these boxes end up in landfills, contributing to the vast amounts of plastic waste generated. An increasingly stringent regulation on plastic waste (including the possibility of EU policies limiting EPS use), and a growing demand from consumers for sustainable practices are driving fish producers to look for plastic-free eco-friendly packaging alternatives. However, currently available options on the market still fail either on performance or cost. Cool Wool ehf was founded in 2017 with the aim of developing the Cool Wool box: an insulating box for the fishing industry that will lower the environmental impact of its supply chain. Cool Wool box is an eco-friendly, biodegradable, light and strong waterproof cardboard box with integrated wool layers coming from discarded wool from the farm sector or regenerated wool from the textile industry. In this way, Cool Wool Box (which will be produced following a zero-waste circular economy production model) grants a superior insulation capacity to state-of-the-art solutions, while having a low carbon footprint and cutting down packaging, transport, and disposal costs. This project will allow our company to transition from pre-revenue to profitable business in just two years of commercialization, growing our team to 13 people. Moreover, it will contribute to our vision of leading the way towards a more sustainable future by developing eco-friendly thermal packaging solutions.

Keywords: ecofriendly packaging,wool reuse,fish conservation,insulation
Quasistatic evolution problems for material failure due to fatigue (FatiguEvoPro)

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: Mathematics
Countries involved: Germany
Call: Individual Fellowships (H2020-MSCA-IF-2017, 2017)
Start date: 2019-12-01
End date: 2021-11-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 159460.8
EU funding (EUR): 159460.8
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

This research project deals with evolutionary problems arising in the modelling of material failure caused by fatigue. In Materials Science, fatigue is the process by which a solid exhibits a loss of its elastic properties as a consequence of repeated cycles of loading and unloading, and it is responsible for the majority of unforeseen structural failures. Infamous accidents have shown how the consequences of fatigue can be catastrophic, causing tremendous financial losses, serious injuries, and deaths. In contrast to the active Engineering research on the topic, fatigue phenomena have been so far scarcely investigated by mathematicians. Since Mathematical Analysis has played a crucial role for the proof of consistency of variational models in Fracture Mechanics, it is clear that this field would benefit from a cogent and cutting-edge mathematical theory of fatigue. The aim of FatiguEvoPro is to prove the existence of evolutions for mechanical models of material fatigue. The existence of quasistatic evolutions for Rate-Independent Systems featuring fatigue will be investigated within damage, brittle fracture, and cohesive fracture. The models of FatiguEvoPro describe the current state of the mechanical system in terms of a memory variable which takes into account the whole history of its evolution. The resulting weak control of this variable is the main source of difficulty in the proof of existence of evolutions. The new effective techniques developed to solve this problem have great potential for applications in different contexts. The achievements of FatiguEvoPro will develop a new branch of the variational modelling of Fracture Mechanics and will strengthen the mutual interest between mathematicians and engineers on a topic of utmost importance. The planned training activities will improve the applicant's skills in networking, teaching, communication, and project management, establishing his position as a leading young researcher in the field.

Keywords: variational models,fracture mechanics,quasistatic evolutions,rate independent systems,fatigue
A Non-Invasive Test for Guiding Follow–up of Patients with CT-Detected Lung Nodules (LuMaSense)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Proof of concept grants
Action type: ERC actions
Countries involved: Israel
Call: ERC Proof of Concept Grant (ERC-2014-PoC, 2014)
Start date: 2015-06-01
End date: 2016-11-30
Duration (months): 18.0
Total project cost (EUR): 150000.0
EU funding (EUR): 150000.0
Participants: 2
Project status: CLOSED

This PoC is a commercially-oriented spin-off from our “DIAG-CANCER” ERC project, addressing an urgent clinical need in the field of lung cancer (LC). The rationale behind this PoC is that CT-based LC screening programs are emerging in many countries worldwide. However, the high false positive rate of this technique (96% out of the 24% positive CT findings are non-cancerous) has been a major challenge in front those plans. This is because the CT-detected non-cancerous group has undergone unnecessary invasive procedures that are both costly and associated with significant morbidity and mortality. With this PoC project, we aim to increase the specificity of the LDCT based screening program by utilizing an auxiliary noninvasive breath test to distinguish between malignant and non-cancerous CT findings. The proposed breath test relies on a novel stand-alone device that provide an improved combination of speed, sensitivity, portability, low complexity, easy operation and low production cost. In order to transform our idea and current technology into a marketable device we propose taking several steps: (i) optimization of a prototype device and evaluation of its clinical usefulness through clinical studies; (ii) completing the IP portfolio of the device; and (iii) conducting detailed market research to identify the optimal placement in the healthcare market and possible competitors. After completing these stages, to be covered by the present grant, we propose to proceed to the technology transfer to a mature health care company or through complementary fund to advance the technological plans. If successful, the proposed PoC can be translated immediately into a powerful tool for the management of nodule-positive patients. It will both reduce the rate of unnecessary invasive procedures, and on the other hand, will avoid treatment delay when cancer exists. The economic implication of this action is a significant save of ~$12-16 billion for the healthcare system worldwide.
Revolutionizing ground-handling procedures and increasing airport efficiency, economy, and safety (IVObility)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Industrial Leadership
Programme: Innovation in SMEs
Action type: SME instrument
Countries involved: Israel
Call: SME instrument (H2020-SMEInst-2018-2020-1, 2019)
Start date: 2019-12-01
End date: 2020-03-31
Duration (months): 4.0
Total project cost (EUR): 71429.0
EU funding (EUR): 50000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

People are travelling by air each year and a common complaint is delayed flights. 10% of flight delays are caused by inefficient ground handling, amounting to €8.9 billion in losses every year. Our project aims to reduce inefficient ground handling by automating ground handling services, making them faster, safer, more robust, less dependent on human operators, and able to withstand all weather conditions. Some airports have started exploring the use of specific autonomous vehicles or kits to remotely control vehicles. However, these “solutions” can be very expensive (up to €500K/vehicle) and most are limited to very specific activities (moving baggage or shuttling passengers). BG Robotics is a spin-off of Ben-Gurion University’s Laboratory of Autonomous Robotics with 10 team members highly skilled in robotics, software/mechanical engineering and computing deep neural networks. we have developed IVObility, the first robotic driver created specifically (but not exclusively) for ground handling vehicles. In less than 10 minutes, any vehicle can be put into immediate action. An existing fleet can be used “as is” since any vehicle can be retrofitted with IVObility without the need for modifications, requiring 84% less capital expenditure than current solutions. As a next step, we want to enhance IVObility’s ruggedness, deepen its algorithm and neuron network and streamline its modular production. We will secure sales contracts with airport operators and ground handling service companies, who has committed to completing a pilot study to demonstrate IVObility’s function and verify the placement of IVObility at the airports they service.

Keywords: vehicle engineering,deep neural networks,robotics,automation,ground handling vehicles,airports
NMR-based Sensor Technology at Nanoscale (NMRNTECH)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Proof of concept grants
Action type: ERC actions
Countries involved: Germany
Call: ERC-Proof of Concept-2016 (ERC-2016-PoC, 2016)
Start date: 2017-04-01
End date: 2018-03-31
Duration (months): 12.0
Total project cost (EUR): 150000.0
EU funding (EUR): 150000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectrometry is the most widely used method in the spectrometry market. With applications in various areas such as geo exploration, material quality control, drug development, and biomedical imaging, NMR provides rich spectroscopic information of the structure for material analyses. Therefore, for advancing human health and science, NMR spectrometry and also microfluidics are widely adopted technologies in studying biological processes and thus utilised in many biomedical applications. However, given its low sensitivity, the technique is only applicable to large specimens. This proof-of-concept project develops novel atomic-size defect centres in diamond, which are superior to the current state-of-the-art magnetic field sensors in terms of spatial resolution, sensitivity and rugged design. Initial tests with single sensing defects confirm estimates on the achievable spatial resolution down to a few nanometers and reduction of volumetric sensitivity by factor of 108 as compared to the existing technologies. Through achieving this level, we are able to bring the full functionality and integration of NMR, i.e. molecular specificity to micro analytics. Therefore, the improvement of NMR sensitivity and the development of nanoscale NMR imaging, promises revolutionary impacts on the areas of bioscience and spectrometry technology, which in turn enables new applications in areas such as nanotechnology and bioanalytics. In this project, we’ll (1) demonstrate integration of a diamond-based NMR sensor into a microfluidic device and in magnetic storage system. To best prepare for the post-PoC commercialisation we’ll (2) test the NMR device in real-life industrial application, i.e. in characterization of hard-dick’s write-head. Moreover, we’ll also (3) carry out pre-commercialisation and networking activities, and (4) plan for the commercialisation of the novel NMR microfluidic sensor technology.

Keywords: atomic scale diamond magnetometers,optical defect centres,high magnet field sensitivity,nanometer scale resolution,micro fluidic sensors,write head,hard disk drives,commercialisation
Catalysis with Chalcogen Bonds: Toward Artificial Enzymes (ChalEnz)

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-2016, 2016)
Start date: 2017-05-01
End date: 2019-04-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 175419.6
EU funding (EUR): 175419.6
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Major advances in science and technology are arising from the discovery and exploitation of new non-covalent interactions between molecules and the development of novel supramolecular functional systems. However, a limited number of supramolecular interactions is available up to date. Therefore, the discovery of conceptually innovative, non-conventional approaches to create function should result in a breakthrough in current science. One of the most relevant functions that can be implemented in molecular and supramolecular systems is the ability to catalyse chemical processes. Thus, the goal of this proposal is the integration of unorthodox non-covalent interactions, up to date mainly studied as a concept, into practical applications in the field of catalysis. In this regard, catalysis operating with intermolecular chalcogen bonds, originated from σ-holes on electron-deficient Group VI atoms, is completely unexplored. However, this unorthodox counterpart of hydrogen bonds, with similar strength, superior directionality and ability to play in hydrophobic environments, could rapidly change a field to a quite remarkable extent. Furthermore, integration of these systems in artificial enzymes and multienzymatic processes in which catalytic steps influence each other through multiple feedback loops would open the door to asymmetric catalysis and metabolic engineering with a completely novel interaction at work.

Keywords: exotic interactions,chalcogen bond,catalysis,artificial enzyme
Controlling light-matter interactions by quantum designed 2D materials (LIMA)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Consolidator grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Condensed matter physics
Panel description: Structure, electronic properties, fluids, nanosciences, biological physics
Countries involved: Denmark
Call: ERC Consolidator Grant (ERC-2017-COG, 2017)
Start date: 2018-04-01
End date: 2023-09-30
Duration (months): 66.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1951353.75
EU funding (EUR): 1951353.75
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Progress within many contemporary or emergent technologies, including photovoltaics, single-photon light sources, and plasmonics, depends crucially on our ability to control the interactions between light and matter. The complexity of the light-matter interactions has made the development of photonic materials a slow, expensive, and empirical-based science. Of particular importance are the detrimental non-radiative processes mediated by defects and phonons that lead to efficiency losses in photovoltaics, reduce the quantum efficiency of single-photon emitters, and cause Ohmic losses in the metallic components of plasmonic devices. LIMA will develop ground breaking methods for calculating non-radiative relaxation rates in real materials from first principles. These will be used to evaluate key performance parameters such as photo-carrier lifetimes and plasmon propagation lengths and thus facilitate a realistic computational assessment of the application potential of photonic materials. In terms of materials, LIMA will focus on the emergent class of atomically thin two-dimensional (2D) materials. The possibility of combining different 2D materials into van der Waals heterostructures (vdWHs) provides a unique platform for controlling light-matter interactions with atomic scale precision. Multi-scale methods for predicting quasiparticle band structures of general, incommensurable vdWHs will be developed and used to design novel photonic materials with tailored light dispersion and multi-junction solar cells with high absorption and low thermalization losses. High-throughput computational screening will be used to identify novel color centers in 2D materials with potential to act as single-photon sources with high quantum yield and narrow linewidths, which are urgently needed by leading quantum technologies. The possibilities of controlling the color centers via strain engineering and light management will be explored in close collaboration with experimentalists.

Keywords: two dimensional materials,electronic structure calculations,light matter interactions,computational materials design