Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Extracellular vesicles from a natural source for tailor-made nanomaterials (VES4US)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: Future and Emerging Technologies (FET)
Theme: EIC Pathfinder
Destination: Novel ideas for radically new technologies
Action type: Research and Innovation actions
Countries involved: Ireland,Germany,Spain,Italy,Switzerland,Slovenia
Call: FET-Open research and innovation actions (H2020-FETOPEN-1-2016-2017, 2017)
Start date: 2018-09-01
End date: 2022-02-28
Duration (months): 42.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2946303.75
EU funding (EUR): 2946303.75
Participants: 6
Project status: CLOSED

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are cell-derived, membranous particles that mediate intercellular communication by transferring biomolecules such as proteins and RNAs. The discovery of EVs as natural biocarriers and inter-species communication means has raised great interest in the drug delivery field. EVs intrinsically possess many attributes of a drug delivery vehicle, since these particles i) are well tolerated in the body, ii) have long circulating half-life, iii) are internalised by recipient cells and iv) are able of crossing the blood brain barrier. Native and drug-loaded mammalian cell-derived EVs have recently been developed and are contributing to the expanding research field known as “cell-free therapy”. Despite these promising progresses, translational applications are currently hampered by the lack of suitable processes for the isolation, characterisation and functionalisation of EVs. The aim of Ves4US is to develop a radically new platform for the efficient production and functionalisation of EVs, which will enable for their exploitation as tailor-made products in the fields of nanomedicine, cosmetics and nutraceutics. A core aspect of the project is to focus vesicles from an identified natural source, which could constitute a more economically viable and sustainable source of EVs. This will allow the development of natural nanocarriers with unprecedented abilities for drug delivery in specific tissues such as brain, lung, skin, dendritic or tumor cells. Ves4US is endorsed by prominent industrial stakeholders with strong interests in market-oriented innovation. The actively emerging field of EV-based research and industrial/clinical translation will significantly profit from the proposed VES4US innovation of focusing on natural nanovesicles; the new knowledge created will influence the biomedical landscape of the future both within and outside the European Union. The actively emerging field of EV-based research and industrial/clinical translation will significantly profit from the proposed VES4US innovation of focusing on natural source derived nanovesicles; the new knowledge created will influence the biomedical landscape of the future both within and outside the European Union.

Keywords: extracellular vesicles,exosomes,cell cell communication,membrane functionalization,nanocarrier,microfluidic,microalgae,nanovesicle purification method
A High-throughput, Functional Imaging Platform to Accelerate Drug Discovery (Ima-Go)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Industrial Leadership
Programme: Innovation in SMEs
Action type: SME instrument
Countries involved: Switzerland
Call: SME instrument (H2020-SMEInst-2018-2020-1, 2018)
Start date: 2019-02-01
End date: 2019-07-31
Duration (months): 6.0
Total project cost (EUR): 71429.0
EU funding (EUR): 50000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The aim of this SME Instruments Phase 1 proposal is to perform a feasibility study for the commercialization of Ima-Go, a novel 96-well functional imaging platform for preclinical drug discovery for substances targeting brain diseases. In contrast to state-of-the-art technologies for functional imaging, which either interfere with cellular viability and physiology or provide only a poor spatiotemporal resolution, Ima-Go is label-free, non-invasive and provides readouts of highest quality and resolution. The Ima-Go platform will introduce to the market new biological assays for human cell lines, which cannot be performed by current competing technologies. MaxWell Biosystems AG developed the most advanced functional imaging platform for tracking neuronal activity used in basic neuroscience research. With Ima-Go, MaxWell Biosystem will scale this technology to a throughput required in drug discovery applications. MaxWell Biosystems AG aims to become a world-wide technology leader in the field of advanced functional imaging platforms and modern data analysis solutions, meeting the needs of pharmaceutical companies and contract research organizations to accelerate drug development.

Keywords: drug discovery,functional imaging,electropysiology,microsensor,cmos,bioassay
CellsBox: a modular system for automated cell imaging experiments (CellsBox)

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: United Kingdom
Call: ERC Proof of Concept Grant (ERC-2018-PoC, 2018)
Start date: 2019-03-01
End date: 2021-02-28
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 149931.0
EU funding (EUR): 149931.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Based on research from ERC CoG HydroSync where we developed both hardware and software approaches to cell imaging, we are in the position to develop translationally a cell culture and imaging unit, with integrated modular hardware and analysis software allowing automated robust performance. This promises to not just significantly bring down the costs for a broad spectrum of cell biology and single cell imaging experiments. It will also make these experiments more reproducible, systematic and easily accessible in standardised fashion. Perhaps most important of all, by designing in an integrated (whilst modular architecture) system all the components of the experiment (optics, mechanics, cell environment and fluids control, cell sample chambers, analysis), we make it possible to rapidly feedback information on the state of the sample into actions by any of the other modules, thus allowing a new space of experimental design. This automation in running the experimental stage of cell biology, microbiology, infectious disease models, early embryo developmental work, etc (i.e. any of the many situations where one aims to follow the properties of individual cells) also aligns to the current revolution triggered by machine and deep learning approaches. We can imagine a day when integrated experimental "CellsBoxes" perform, in a hypothesis-driven optimised and tireless fashion, a battery of experiments that today would simply be inconceivable. This project addresses one of the experimental bottlenecks that still make too much of biological and medical research subject to bias and poor reproducibility, and change the nature of point-of-care cell tissue analysis. It will be disruptive in the current landscape of optical cell imaging, a market > $1bn globally.

Keywords: cell imaging,optical microscopy,automation,image analysis
Coordination of regional dopamine release in the striatum during habit formation and compulsive behaviour (CoordinatedDopamine)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Neuroscience and Disorders of the Nervous System
Panel description: Nervous system development, homeostasis and ageing, nervous system function and dysfunction, systems neuroscience and modelling, biological basis of cognitive processes and of behaviour, neurological and mental disorders
Countries involved: Netherlands
Call: ERC Starting Grant (ERC-2014-STG, 2014)
Start date: 2015-05-01
End date: 2020-04-30
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1500000.0
EU funding (EUR): 812500.0
Participants: 2
Project status: CLOSED

The basal ganglia consist of a set of neuroanatomical structures that participate in the representation and execution of action sequences. Dopamine neurotransmission in the striatum, the main input nucleus of the basal ganglia, is a fundamental mechanism involved in learning and regulation of such actions. The striatum has multiple functional units, where the limbic striatum is thought to mediate motivational aspects of actions (e.g., goal-directedness) and the sensorimotor striatum their automation (e.g., habit formation). A long-standing question in the field is how limbic and sensorimotor domains communicate with each other, and specifically if they do so during the automation of action sequences. It has been suggested that such coordination is implemented by reciprocal loop connections between striatal projection neurons and the dopaminergic midbrain. Although very influential in theory the effectiveness of this limbic-sensorimotor “bridging” principle has yet to be verified. I hypothesize that during the automation of behaviour regional dopamine signalling is governed by a striatal hierarchy and that dysregulation of this coordination leads to compulsive execution of automatic actions characteristic of several psychiatric disorders. To test this hypothesis, we will conduct electrochemical measurements with real-time resolution simultaneously in limbic and sensorimotor striatum to assess the regional coordination of dopamine release in behaving animals. We developed novel chronically implantable electrodes to enable monitoring of dopamine dynamics throughout the development of habitual behaviour and its compulsive execution in transgenic rats - a species suitable for our complex behavioural assays. Novel rabies virus-mediated gene delivery for in vivo optogenetics in these rats will give us the unique opportunity to test whether specific loop pathways govern striatal dopamine transmission and are causally involved in habit formation and compulsive behaviour.

Keywords: electrochemistry,dopamine,optogenetics,basal ganglia,obsessive compulsive disorder,addiction
ProsocialLearn - Gamification of Prosocial Learning for Increased Youth Inclusion and Academic Achievement (ProsocialLearn)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Industrial Leadership
Programme: Information and Communication Technologies
Theme: Content technologies and information management: ICT for digital content, cultural and creative industries
Action type: Innovation actions
Countries involved: Italy,Germany,Spain,Greece,Sweden,Greece,Finland,Romania,Sweden,United Kingdom,United Kingdom,United Kingdom
Call: Advanced digital gaming/gamification technologies (H2020-ICT-2014-1, 2014)
Start date: 2015-01-01
End date: 2018-02-28
Duration (months): 38.0
Total project cost (EUR): 4207372.1
EU funding (EUR): 3448102.13
Participants: 12
Project status: CLOSED

ProsocialLearn will establish a new market for digital games aiming at increasing social inclusion and academic performance. A ground-breaking digital gaming genre will be created that focuses on helping children to acquire prosocial skills necessary for positive relationships, team working, trustworthiness and emotional intelligence. ProsocialLearn will deliver a series of disruptive innovations building on a game development and distribution platform for the production of prosocial games that engages children and stimulates technology transfer from traditional game industry to the education sector. ProsocialLearn will offer games developers scientifically proven prosocial game elements for development digital games. An application programming interface (API), ProsocialAPI, will allow developers to integrate functions into games including visual sensing, identification of prosocial signals from in-game actions, personalised adaptation of game elements, player profiles, game mechanics and expressive virtual characters, and support for data collection with protection of personal data. SMEs from the traditional game industry will work together with serious games companies to produce a series of exciting digital games targeting European schools. Through a multi-disciplinary collaboration between industry, researchers, psychologists, pedagogists and teaching professionals, ProsocialLearn will address complex factors associated with child development and advanced ICT in school curricula. Two SMEs within the consortium will produce an initial set of games and additional SMEs will be incorporated in the third year of the project to foster market creation. Both short term and longitudinal studies (pilots) will be conducted at schools across Europe to build scientific evidence of the benefits of prosocial gaming in different cultural settings and scales, and to explore business models, business plans and verify financial viability of the ProsocialLearn platform.

Keywords: prosocial,gaming,learning
Validation of diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers for Parkinson disease (Biomarkers for PD)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Societal Challenges
Programme: Health, demographic change and wellbeing
Theme: Treating and managing disease
Action type: SME instrument
Countries involved: Sweden
Call: Clinical research for the validation of biomarkers and/or diagnostic medical devices (H2020-SMEINST-1-2015, 2015)
Start date: 2015-09-01
End date: 2016-02-29
Duration (months): 6.0
Total project cost (EUR): 71429.0
EU funding (EUR): 50000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is one of the most prevalent neurodegenerative disorders and a disease with a significant unmet medical need. World-wide, more than 4.6 million individuals over the age of 50 suffer from PD and it is estimated that the number will more than double by 2030. The economic impact of the disease is enormous and the estimated annual European cost of PD is 14 billion euros. At present, only symptomatic therapies are available for PD and there is a huge unmet need for treatments that also slow or halt disease progression. Improved patient outcomes are achieved by early diagnosis and disease modifying treatment. BioArctic Neuroscience is developing a PD biomarker assay, with the potential of becoming the first biochemical biomarker assay that can reflect the underlying pathophysiology of disease. The assay is based on CSF measurements of toxic oligomer/protofibril forms of alpha-synuclein. In this project we will: • Conduct biochemical biomarker assay development for PD • Conduct a small pilot study on clinical cohorts including patients with PD and healthy controls • Evaluate the business opportunities and further development path for PD biomarkers Today, there are no reliable biochemical biomarkers for PD and the disease is often difficult to diagnose. The differential diagnosis of PD is based on clinical features and the golden standard still remains neuropathological confirmation. Misclassification, especially in early PD, occurs frequently. High sensitivity and specificity can only be obtained at specialized centres, and after several years of follow-up. To be able to modify or halt the disease progression it is beneficial to initiate a disease modifying treatment at an earlier stage than what is possible today. The clinical validation of a sensitive and specific biomarker that also could mirror the treatment effect would make an enormous advantage and need to be developed in parallel with the development of new disease modifying therapeutics.

Keywords: parkinsons disease,neurodegeneration
Stereoselective CO2 Capture through Sustainable Organocatalytic Alkene Activation (SusCat)

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: Germany
Call: Individual Fellowships (H2020-MSCA-IF-2019, 2019)
Start date: 2020-04-01
End date: 2022-03-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 162806.4
EU funding (EUR): 162806.4
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

SusCat aims to develop asymmetric organocatalytic reactions using cheap, commonplace starting materials (alkenes and CO2) to achieve environmentally-friendly manufacturing of medicinally important building blocks, which are abundant in drug molecules and agrochemicals. An atom economical manufacturing of these value-added products will be realized avoiding the use of intrinsically toxic reagents and production of waste chemical byproducts. We will adopt an interdisciplinary approach by combining experiment, theory and cheminformatics. SusCat promises to open new vistas in organocatalytic unbiased olefin activation, a longstanding quest in organic synthesis. This approach will also pave the way for the use of CO2 as a C1 synthon under mild conditions, which will not only help to reduce the carbon footprint but also add to the understanding of how nature uses CO2 as a source of energy. Moreover, the state-of-the-art computational analysis and physical organic experiments will be performed to gain insights on the molecular level. A detailed cheminformatics-based approach will be adopted to build a predictive statistical model and understand the structure activity relationship between the catalyst and the substrate. SusCat will equip the Experienced Researcher with new knowledge and skills in theory and experimentation, thus broadening his scientific background and enhancing his prospects as an independent researcher. At the same time, the Action and the Host group will benefit from the advanced knowledge in chemical catalysis acquired by the researcher during his stay. Overall, this study will create a bridge among organic synthesis, computational modelling and physical organic studies, providing not only a unique alternative to environmentally deleterious metal-mediated synthesis, but also contributing towards achieving the Europe 2020 strategy priorities: sustainable growth and resource efficiency.

Keywords: organocatalysis,dft analysis,computational catalysis
Digitalization and Automation of Freight Rail (FR8RAIL II)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Societal Challenges
Programme: Smart, green and integrated transport
Theme: Public-private partnerships
Destination: European rail initiative
Action type: Innovation actions
Partnership: Shift2Rail (Art-187)
Countries involved: Spain,Austria,Germany,Germany,Germany,Germany,Germany,Germany,Spain,Italy,Italy,Italy,Austria,Germany,Austria,Sweden,Sweden,Sweden,Sweden,Sweden,Sweden,Switzerland,Hungary,Slovakia,Sweden,France
Call: Technology demonstrators for competitive, intelligent rail freight operation (H2020-S2RJU-CFM-2018, 2018)
Start date: 2018-05-01
End date: 2022-12-31
Duration (months): 56.0
Total project cost (EUR): 6913143.29
EU funding (EUR): 5461568.31
Participants: 36
Project status: SIGNED

Within the challenges highlighted in the IP5 part of the S2R Master Plan, FR8RAIL II further focuses on improving the freight eco system by addressing various challenges: New automatic couplers (1), provided with electrical and data transmission functionalities will massively improve the efficiency of the train composition process, new telematics and electrification (2) will enable Condition Based Maintenance (CBM) by collecting, transmitting and using the necessary information while being supplied with the required energy by means of an advanced energy management system. Improved methods for annual and short-term timetable planning (3) will help traffic operators increasing the overall capacity and raise punctuality and with Real-time network management (4), integrating medium to short-term and operational planning at yards/terminals and in the railway network, inefficiencies will be further reduced or even eliminated. Future freight wagon design (5) is a stream that will contribute in improving reliability of the freight transport while increasing the payload per meter of train. The latter one will be propelled by future main line electric freight locomotives featuring highly flexible freight propulsion (6) systems with reduced operational costs. Furthermore, these new freight trains will be propelled by more than one locomotive running with distributed power (7), thus allowing long freight trains up to 1,500 m. Last but not least, focus is given to driver advisory aystems that are connected (C-DAS) to the traffic management systems (8), further enhancing capacity, improving punctuality and optimize energy consumption of the railway system. Summarizing, FR8RAIL II focuses on various facets of the freight eco system with one goal: overall improvement and increase of competitiveness of the rail freight transport.

Keywords: wagon design,running gears,smart assets,electrification,long trains,propulsion systems,condition based maintenance
Capacity building for cities and regions - from learning to action! (PROSPECTplus)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Societal Challenges
Programme: Secure, clean and efficient energy
Theme: Reducing energy consumption and carbon foorpint by smart and sustainable use
Action type: Coordination and support actions
Countries involved: Austria,Ireland,Spain,Germany,Belgium,Greece,Slovenia,France,Czechia,Netherlands
Call: Supporting public authorities in driving the energy transition (H2020-LC-SC3-EE-2020-2, 2020)
Start date: 2021-09-01
End date: 2025-02-28
Duration (months): 42.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2199141.25
EU funding (EUR): 2199141.25
Participants: 11
Project status: SIGNED

PROSPECT+ will build on the existing H2020 project PROSPECT to enable capacity building in regional and local authorities in order to finance and implement effective and efficient sustainable energy plans, including their proper monitoring and verification and also ensuring that such plans are using synergies from other local plans and that their effects are properly monitored. The learning will continue through the 5 learning modules (public buildings, private buildings, public lighting, transport, and cross-sectoral), with more attention given to improved decision-making of cities on how they choose projects for financing, as well as how to assess and ensure that their projects are finance-ready. The types of innovative financing and the modules will stay the same, but the methodology, the process, and the learning materials will be greatly improved. The ambition of PROSPECT+ is to ensure that over 200 EU cities in at least 20 EU MS improve their capacities when it comes to implementing projects from SECAPs and similar sustainable plans.

Keywords: innovative financing for energy efficiency projects