Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Understanding the re-deployment of gene regulatory networks underlying regeneration (EARN)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Life-long training and career development
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: France
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-CIG, 2013)
Start date: 2014-03-01
End date: 2018-02-28
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 100000.0
EU funding (EUR): 100000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Regeneration and embryonic development have in common that they result in fully functional tissues and organisms. Some species are able to regrow entire organisms from small fragments, while others are able to regenerate only specific structures, tissues or cell types. What are the molecular underlying regeneration? What is the degree of conservation between regeneration and embryonic development? What are the molecular reasons for differences in regenerative capacities between organisms? Are these differences linked to the embryonic history of each species? How is regeneration triggered in response to internal or external stresses? How are regeneration capacities impaired during aging? Can we increase the regeneration capacities of tissues by re-deploying an early developmental program? With the enhancement of modern genomics, regeneration biology has become a re-emerging field of interest, allowing to revisit the relationships between regeneration, embryogenesis, stress response, stem cell biology, aging and cancer. Due to the lack of accessibility to embryonic material in the main whole body regeneration models, the question about the molecular relationship between regeneration and early development remains largely unanswered. An emerging concept that is central to my project is that embryonic developmental processes are re-used during regeneration. Specifically, I propose to functionally reconstruct the gene regulatory networks underlying regeneration in the sea anemone Nematostella vectensis, that possesses all required attributes for the proposed work, using genomics and functional techniques such as morpholino based knockdown approaches in the adult. The generation of high quality molecular data from a uniquely suitable species will provide basic information about the molecular events underlying regeneration and allow direct comparisons between regeneration, embryogenesis, stress response and aging events within the same animal.

Keywords: regeneration,gene regulatory networks,transcription factors,signaling pathways,stress,invertebrate,evolution,functional genomics,embryogenesis,cnidarian,sea anemone
Advance Challenging Statistical Analysis for Massive High-Dimensional Nonlinear Spatial Time Series (ANLSDA)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Life-long training and career development
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-CIG, 2013)
Start date: 2014-05-01
End date: 2018-04-30
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 100000.0
EU funding (EUR): 100000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Modern society, including Europe, faces a variety of global issues, such as global environmental (including climate) changes, global economic and financial crises as well as global energy and sustainable development. Many of these global challenges facing humanity are geo-spatial in nature, with big spatio-temporal data from location-based events or services that are complexly connected and interdependent, requiring advanced, more accurate and effective statistical and econometric techniques in modeling and forecasting of various risks associated with these global challenges. This project aims to develop the cutting-edge methodologies to advance the challenging theoretical and practical issues in statistical inference and econometric analysis of massive high-dimensional nonlinear spatial time series. It will explore some fundamental and difficult issues and establish a unifying novel theory for a framework of non-parametric and semi-parametric approaches to modeling and forecasting of massive nonlinear spatial time series data that involve complex structures and information both from temporal and spatial dimensions arising in such important applications as predicting environmental and climate as well as socioeconomic risks. The developed new generation of statistical and econometric technologies will empower the practitioners and policy-makers to produce more accurate quantitative forecasts that help to generate more informed countermeasures with regard to various risks that our modern society faces. As one of the international pioneering researchers in nonlinear spatial and spatio-temporal data analysis, a new subject in the discipline of Statistics, this project, if supported, will greatly enhance and integrate the principal investigator (PI)’s research and career into the UK and Europe from Australia where the PI received strong financial supports in research from the Australian Research Council.

Keywords: big spatio-temporal data,nonlinear spatial time series analysis,nonparametric and semiparametric approaches,high-dimensional statistics and econometrics,environmental and climate risk forecasting
Environment-induced plastic responses in chemical defences of a vertebrate (CHEMICAL DEFENCES)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Life-long training and career development
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: Hungary
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-CIG, 2013)
Start date: 2014-07-01
End date: 2018-06-30
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 100000.0
EU funding (EUR): 100000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Phenotypic plasticity is a core concept of evolutionary biology and there is ample evidence for adjustments to environmental conditions in a row of life history traits in a wide variety of living organisms. Also, environmentally induced changes in chemical defences form the basis of a large research field in plants. However, we know startlingly little about similar plasticity in chemical defences of animals, despite its potential significance for ecology, evolution and conservation, through effects on individual fitness, interspecific interactions, demography and speciation. We will test whether tadpoles of the common toad (Bufo bufo) adjust the production of toxins to the presence and abundance of predators, competitors or pathogens. Furthermore, we will examine whether environmentally induced changes in the production of toxic skin gland secretions lead to elevated fitness of tadpoles and, hence, these plastic responses can be considered adaptive. Finally, we will investigate if the expression of inducible defences carries costs that are immediately visible or appear in the long term. We will perform outdoors- and indoors experiments and validate experimental results by sampling natural populations in collaboration with world leading experts. Our results will have implications for evolutionary biology, chemical ecology, behavioural ecology and conservation biology. Because our project targets biogenic and bioactive chemicals, results may also provide new impulses towards agriculture, medicine or pharmacology. Thus, our project is likely to spark basic and applied research, potentially also resulting in economic revenues.

Keywords: adaptation,amphibia,competition,evolutionary ecology,inducible defense,infection,phenotypic plasticity,predation,skin toxin,tadpole
ReproTag - Targeting reproductive traits for more efficient forage grass breeding (REPROTAG)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Life-long training and career development
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: Switzerland
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-CIG, 2013)
Start date: 2014-02-01
End date: 2017-01-31
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 75000.0
EU funding (EUR): 75000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Grassland is a key component of a diverse but productive European agroecosystem and contributes to sustainable feed and food production worldwide. Novel grass breeding schemes based on a more efficient exploitation of heterosis have the potential to substantially outperform current forage grass varieties in terms of biomass yield, resistance and tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses. However, current attempts to produce hybrids in forage crops are limited by self-incompatibility (SI), a genetic mechanism that efficiently promotes cross pollination, and the inability to efficiently control pollination for hybrid seed production at commercial quantities. The overall goal of the research is to identify and target grass reproductive traits that can be utilized in hybrid breeding schemes and finally lead to improved productivity of forage and turf grasses. The proposed research will focus on the two-locus SI system, fertility restoring self-compatibility loci (SC), cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS) mechanisms and double haploid (DH) induction in perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.). This goal will be achieved by a unique cross-disciplinary approach combining expertise in hybrid breeding available at the host institution, state of the art genetic and genomic tools available through the collaboration partner from Aarhus University, Denmark, and excellent genetic resources available from Molecular Ecology and Fodder Crop Breeding at Agroscope Reckenholz-Tänikon Research Station (ART). For the host institution, the proposed research will strengthen the research strategy to improve aspects of the “World Food Systems” and complement the teaching portfolio by adding valuable education elements based on molecular breeding strategies. Close interaction of collaborating parties will not only enable rapid scientific progress but also allow for efficient dissemination of knowledge and implementation of the results into practical breeding.

Keywords: cytoplasmic male sterility (cms),forage grasses,heterosis,hybrid breeding,perennial ryegrass (lolium perenne l.),self-compatibility (sc),self-incompatibility (si),doubled haploid (dh)
Next Generation Driving Behaviour Models (NG-DBM)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Life-long training and career development
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-CIG, 2013)
Start date: 2015-02-01
End date: 2019-01-31
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 100000.0
EU funding (EUR): 100000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Microscopic traffic simulation tools which replicate individual driver decisions and combine them to deduce network conditions are popular tools for evaluating transport planning and management options. An essential component of such tools is a set of mathematical models of driver behaviour, including but not limited to longitudinal movement models, lateral movement models, and route choice models. Driving behaviour is an inherently complex process, with driving decisions being affected by various factors, including network topography, traffic conditions, path-plan of the driver, features of the vehicle and characteristics of the driver. The existing driving behaviour models address many of these factors, either fully or partially. However, the existing models tend to overlook the effect of driver characteristics on the decision framework and ignore the underlying heterogeneity in decision making of different drivers as well as the same driver in different contexts. The behavioural predictions from such models are bound to contain significant noise and implementation of models in traffic micro-simulation tools can lead to unrealistic traffic flow characteristics and incorrect representation of congestion. In this research, we propose to develop dynamic driving behaviour models that explicitly account for the effects of driver characteristics in his/her decisions alongside the effects of path-plan, network topography and traffic conditions. The models will be calibrated by combining experimental data collected from the University of Leeds Driving Simulator (UoLDS) and actual traffic data collected using video recordings. The developed models will have the potential to significantly improve prediction capabilities of microscopic traffic simulators and contribute to better transport planning and management.

Keywords: driving behaviour,traffic microsimulation,behaviour modelling,driving simulator
Next Generation Sequencing to Identify Genes Underlying Extreme Psychiatric Illness and Extraordinary Cognition (GACPD)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Life-long training and career development
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-CIG, 2013)
Start date: 2014-04-01
End date: 2018-08-25
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 100000.0
EU funding (EUR): 100000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The goal of this research is to use next generation sequencing (NGS) to identify genes that have pronounced, early-onset effects on specific cognitive and psychiatric processes by sequencing children with exceptional cognitive abilities or exceptionally early onset psychotic illness. Mental disorders present an enormous societal burden, largely because of our inability to effectively treat them. An improved understanding of their genetic basis could lead to the identification of novel drug targets and improved treatments. Unfortunately, genetic analysis of common neuropsychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, epilepsy, autism and ADHD suggests that they are very genetically heterogeneous, and very large sample sizes will be needed to gather statistical evidence for individual genes and variants. However, there is also evidence for a considerable genetic overlap between different neuropsychiatric traits, suggesting that identifying key genes underlying any neuropsychiatric or neurocognitive process could potentially benefit the entire class of disorders. My program of work seeks to identify genes underlying both pathological and non-pathological traits that: (i) represent the extreme of a particular neurocognitive domain, and (ii) onset very early in childhood before any known environmental contributors would be expected to have much impact. The underlying hypothesis is that in some cases these traits are caused by a single genetic variant that can be identified by comparing the genomic sequence of the affected and unaffected family members. During the period of reintegration to the UK that is supported by the requested funding (2014-2018), I will focus my research program on childhood onset schizophrenia, and exceptional early-onset mathematical and musical abilities.

Keywords: exome sequencing,schizophrenia,mathematics,music,extreme phenotypes,next generation sequencing,genes,childhood onset.
Future Perfect: Ernest Dichter and Consumer Society in Europe and North America (FUTUREPERFECT)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Life-long training and career development
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-CIG, 2013)
Start date: 2014-03-01
End date: 2018-02-28
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 100000.0
EU funding (EUR): 100000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The applicant, Prof Regina Lee Blaszczyk, is the Leadership Chair in the History of Business and Society in the School of History at the University of Leeds. The aim of this CIG is to help Blaszczyk, who moved to Europe in Feb 2013, to integrate her specialized expertise in the cultural history of business into the University of Leeds, the UK, and the EU. The research is built around a historical study of advertising, marketing, and design practice from the 1930s to the 1990s, using the transatlantic career of Austrian émigré Ernest Dichter, often called the ‘father of motivational research’, as a focal point. The research will explore connections between Europe and America starting in the Great Depression and focusing on the Cold War, providing a platform for re-examining transatlantic consumer culture. The research will seek to develop a better understanding of how American and European ideas and practices influenced business culture around the world. The knowledge and skills gained during the fellowship will help the applicant integrate into the European research community, while the publications and dissemination activities will have important implications for EU-level policy makers concerned with business competitiveness in the creative economy.

Keywords: business history,cultural history,design history,history of consumption,history of marketing,public engagement,creative economy,creative industries,museums,future studies
Scale Transitions in Plasticity (STP)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Life-long training and career development
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-CIG, 2013)
Start date: 2014-04-01
End date: 2018-03-31
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 100000.0
EU funding (EUR): 100000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Plastic behavior of crystals is caused by the motion of dislocations. While it is now possible to computationally model the behavior of individual dislocations and their interaction, the large number of these defects in a macroscopic specimen requires a multi-scale approach. The goal of this project is to better understand the passage from atomistic to continuum models as well as to explore the link between non-convexity in continuum plasticity models and the formation of dislocation patterns. Ultimately, we want to develop efficient algorithms to model the plastic behavior of polycrystals, taking into account but not resolving on the microscopic scale the effect of the propagation and locking of dislocations.

Keywords: dislocations,plasticity,scale transition,pattern formation,non-convex energies,calculus of variations,partial differential equations,analysis
MULTI-PHYSICAL STRUCTURES THROUGH THE USE OF METALLIC FOAM SANDWICH PANELS (METFOAM)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Life-long training and career development
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-CIG, 2013)
Start date: 2014-03-01
End date: 2018-02-28
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 100000.0
EU funding (EUR): 100000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Metallic foam sandwich plates and built-up components for civil engineering applications are investigated in this work. The advent of metallic foams in sandwich construction creates an opportunity for a new class of structures with exceptional bending rigidity, enhanced buckling resistance, high energy dissipation, low thermal conductivity and silencing properties. Foam material properties and obvious applications, such as sandwich plates under bending action have been investigated in the literature. However, buckling and compressive analysis is still a missing link between the current knowledge about metallic foam components and their multi-functional applications. Therefore, the proposed project will focus on the development of buckling strength predictions for metallic foam sandwich panels, validated against compressive tests, and supported by microscopy measurements and numerical simulations. The key challenges for the buckling analysis of metallic foam components are shear deformations in the foamed core, and a potential for foam’s fracture. These challenges will be overcome by accounting for shear deformations in the theoretical predictions, and incorporating a suitable fracture criterion for metallic foams. The overarching goal of this research is to enable analysis and design of load-carrying, multi-physical and multi-functional metallic foam members for steel buildings, tunnels, bridges, as well as off-shore structures and wind turbines. This work is part of a larger effort to help develop steel foam as a material with relevance to infrastructure engineering applications.

Keywords: metallic foam,sandwich panels,porous metals,buckling stability,compressive strength,multi-functional,multi-physical,thin-walled structures,light-weight structures,resilient infrastructure
Integrated Optic Quantum Random Number Generators (QRNG)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Life-long training and career development
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: Türkiye
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-CIG, 2013)
Start date: 2014-06-01
End date: 2018-05-31
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 100000.0
EU funding (EUR): 100000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

This project describes a 4-year program to facilitate a successful integration of Dr. Yeniay´s research in the optical based quantum random number generation field at the host organization, Quantum Cryptology Research Group of Turkish National Science and Technology Institute, located in Gebze, Turkey. With the advent of internet and high speed data networks, communication trust and security have become vital to sustain a reliable network platform. Quantum key distribution (QKD) systems, relying on fundamental nature of quantum physics, promise to offer practical networks with unbreakable security. Random number generators are key ingredients in such QKD systems as to enable secure one-time pad random key generations. Yet, currently available quantum random number generators (QRNGs) are based on free space single photon detection techniques with limited capability (e.g. rates at Mbps), especially for one-time pad applications. Recent research efforts work on potential concepts for developing fast QRNGs. The proposed project promises to enable such QRNGs with scalable, parallel, independent true random bit generations on a compact footprint. Dr. Yeniay´s knowledge and expertise on rare-earth doped optical amplifiers and integrated optics present an ideal opportunity to re-integrate his research to realize novel integrated optic fast QRNG module concepts based on tailoring of spontaneous emission of rare-earth doped waveguides and integrating with arrayed waveguide grating platform. The proposed QRNG concepts promise to offer much improved performance, satisfying one-time pad encryption rate requirements, i.e. from Gbps to sub Tbps, in QKD systems for potential unbreakable optical communication security. Besides QKD systems, such fast integrated optic QRNGs promise to address wide range of scientific and commercial applications that include real time data encryption, stochastics modelling, Monte Carlo simulations and security of cluster computing.

Keywords: integrated optic,er doped fiber amplifiers,arrayed waveguide grating,waveguide amplifier,quantum random number generator,quantum key distribution