Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Interdisciplinary Research In Societal challenges (IRIS)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Co-funding of regional, national and international programmes
Action type: Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions
Countries involved: Belgium,France
Call: MSCA COFUND 2024 (HORIZON-MSCA-2024-COFUND-01, 2024)
Start date: 2025-07-01
End date: 2030-06-30
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 5076000.0
EU funding (EUR): 5076000.0
Participants: 9
Project status: SIGNED

The Interdisciplinary Research in Societal Challenges Postdoctoral COFUND (IRIS) programme aligns with the European Commission's policies and the Brussels Capital Region’s (BCR) RIS3 strategy. IRIS aims to enhance interdisciplinary research skills while contributing to solutions to pressing urban societal challenges. IRIS fellows will focus on one or more of the six key societal challenges identified for BCR: 1) Climate & Energy, 2) Resource Optimization, 3) Mobility, 4) Healthy & Sustainable Food, 5) Health & Well-being, and 6) Participative & Inclusive Society. These challenges are relevant to urban areas worldwide. Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB) and Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), working alongside partners such as Innoviris, Sirris, UNICA, BeWise, and hub.brussels, form a strong intersectoral network. IRIS consortium responds to the Joint Research Centre’s call for universities to take on a greater role in regional transformation. The IRIS programme aligns with ULB and VUB’s strategic priorities to foster sustainability, strengthen collaborations with the research and innovation ecosystem, and promote interdisciplinary, intersectoral, and international cooperation. Over 60 months, IRIS will recruit 36 postdoctoral researchers through two application rounds, offering research training and career development opportunities. The programme plans three pillars training—Foundations, Consolidation, and Transition—designed to develop fellows’ Research, Technological Development, and Innovation ‘RTDI’ skills, expand their professional networks, and enhance their employability. IRIS supports the transition from recognised to established researchers, equipping fellows for diverse career paths and enabling them to create a lasting societal impact. Fellows will benefit from access to top research teams, infrastructure, and a broad network of non-academic public and private partners, fostering collaboration beyond academia.

Keywords: societal challenges,urban challenges,interdisciplinary,intersectoral,training,career development,outreach to society
SUSTAINABLE MEMBRANE DISTILLATION FOR INDUSTRIAL WATER REUSE AND DECENTRALISED DESALINATION APPROACHING ZERO WASTE (MEloDIZER)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness
Programme: Digital, Industry and Space
Theme: Industry
Destination: Increased Autonomy in Key Strategic Value Chains for Resilient Industry
Action type: Innovation actions
Countries involved: Italy,Spain,Czechia,Ireland,Denmark,France,Germany,Israel,Switzerland,Greece,Malta,Belgium
Call: Membranes for gas separations - membrane distillation (IA) (HORIZON-CL4-2022-RESILIENCE-01, 2022)
Start date: 2022-12-01
End date: 2026-11-30
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 8257877.61
EU funding (EUR): 7007470.74
Participants: 18
Project status: SIGNED

MEloDIZER implements high-performance membranes and modules in strategic applications of membrane distillation (MD), hence providing the decisive step for the success of MD. These core components are fabricated with a focus on feasible wide uptake and on sustainability, substituting harmful materials and protocols with >80% of benign solvents and relying on green chemistry principles. Both flat-sheets and innovative hollow-fibres are produced, striking the optimum between productivity and energy efficiency, as well as minimising fouling/wetting phenomena, also by applying novel sacrificial coatings while membranes are in situ. Optimised modules are developed with a focus on hydrodynamics and energy recovery improvements. These activities are strongly supported by sustained modelling tasks, conducted at different scales to (i) control the relationship between membrane properties and performance, (ii) customise module geometry, and (iii) increase system efficiency and automation. The membranes and modules are thus rationally installed as core components of four MD prototypes spanning three orders of magnitude of productivity. Two prototypes (2-5 m3/day, 0.5-2 m3/day) are demonstrated in industrial facilities (textile, beverage, chemical industries) to reuse wastewater (70-90%), thus reducing water footprint and approaching zero waste, as well as to recovery valuable nutrients as secondary raw materials from aquaculture wastewater. Two prototypes (50-100 L/day, 10-20 L/day) are demonstrated as low-cost, ready-to-use, passive, autonomous, decentralised units, delivering drinking water from saline and challenging sources at community and family level. All prototypes are run with 90-100% sustainable energy from waste heat and/or solar energy, with careful designs that maximise membrane and system performance. Quantitative, robust evaluations of market entry and environmental benefits act as input data for each innovation activity in MEloDIZER and to promote exploitation.

Keywords: membrane distillation water reuse zero liquid discharge renewable energy desalination resource recovery wastewater management
REsilience of Global Electricity Networks in a changing climate (REGEN)

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: Information Science and Engineering
Countries involved: United Kingdom,Germany
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2024 (HORIZON-MSCA-2024-PF-01, 2024)
Start date: 2025-08-01
End date: 2028-01-31
Duration (months): 30.0
Total project cost (EUR): 345234.9
EU funding (EUR): 345234.9
Participants: 3
Project status: SIGNED

Climate hazards pose severe threats to the ever-increasing interconnection of power networks across borders. Research has focused on climate risks to electricity infrastructure at local or national scales, and thus has not captured the spread of power failures across borders and their ripple effects in the global economy. To identify vulnerable locations and prioritise adaptation investment, it remains a key task to take a global perspective to quantify the vulnerability of power networks to climate hazards. Two challenges remain for scaling up the risk analysis to a global scale: 1) the complexity of modelling power network interconnectivity and failure cascades at very large scales; 2) the difficulty in quantifying losses across economies while considering economic agents’ flexibility in responding to supply and demand fluctuations. REGEN proposes to combine interdisciplinary expertise from academic and non-academic sectors to address above challenges and assess the resilience of global power networks in a changing climate. The objectives are: 1) to simulate power network connectivity and the cross-border propagation of failures due to climate hazards; 2) to develop a new version of the agent-based model Acclimate to assess the wider economic and supply chain impacts of power failures; 3) to assess costs and benefits of adaptation solutions, and develop results into a framework to inform regulatory, investment and engineering decision-making. The project will be primarily conducted at the University of Oxford and supervised by Prof. Jim Hall FREng. Open-access vulnerability maps/datasets and open-source software developed in this project will contribute to EU’s power interconnection target of 15% by 2030 and UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG7 and SDG9). Through this project, the candidate expects to build interdisciplinary networks and achieve the applied impact of his research, which will enhance his career prospects of leading a world-class research group.

Keywords: energy networks,climate hazards,network modelling,global supply chains,climate adaptation solutions
Inferencing, Fast and Slow with Ultra-scaled Phase-Change Devices (INFUSED)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Systems and Communication Engineering
Panel description: Electrical, electronic, communication, optical and systems engineering
Countries involved: Switzerland
Call: ERC STARTING GRANTS (ERC-2025-STG, 2025)
Start date: 2026-04-01
End date: 2031-03-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1499880.0
EU funding (EUR): 1499800.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

A major challenge for deep learning inference is the high energy demand required to retrieve large amounts of synaptic weight data from memory. One promising approach to address this is the use of conductance-based devices, such as non-volatile phase-change memory, to develop chips with stationary synaptic weights. However, two key obstacles remain: enhancing the computational capabilities and increasing the energy efficiency of these devices. INFUSED tackles both issues through groundbreaking device innovation. By utilizing the physics of ultra-scaled materials, it pushes energy efficiency closer to its theoretical limits. Moreover, it introduces dual neurally-plausible temporal dynamics, combining fast adaptive responses with slow, gradual conductance changes. This reimagines traditional neural network elements like the perceptron for more energy-efficient AI inference. INFUSED specifically aims to: ☞ Develop a breakthrough device design method to encode slow weights efficiently by reducing electrical contacts and active volumes to unprecedented scales—below 10 nm², and using 1-nm-thick van der Waals films. These weights are programmable with energy in the tens of femtojoules, offering up to a 100x improvement over current industry devices. ☞ Design a reconfigurable volatile memory to encode fast weights within the slow weights. This innovative method uses field-effect properties of the ultra-scaled volumes. These weights exhibit non-linear temporal dynamics, consuming energy in the picoWatt range, with timescales spanning microseconds to hours, adaptable to AI tasks. ☞ Demonstrate a mixed hardware-software implementation of biologically inspired algorithms leveraging fast and slow dynamics. New neural architectures are developed and benchmarked against mainstream neural networks, as well as against hardware substrates like parallel computing architectures (e.g., GPUs), in complex vision tasks.

Keywords: in memory computing,memristive devices,neuromorphic computing,phase change materials,memory devices,field effect physics,bio inspired algorithms
GROundwater and climate Through Time – modern Observations and Stalagmite-based recharge estimates on a raised coral atoll (GROTTOS)

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: Environment and Geosciences
Countries involved: Germany,Niue
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2024 (HORIZON-MSCA-2024-PF-01, 2024)
Start date: 2025-09-15
End date: 2027-09-14
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 217965.12
EU funding (EUR): 217965.12
Participants: 2
Project status: SIGNED

Sustainable groundwater management is one of the defining societal challenges under rapid global change. But in many Small Island Developing States (SIDS), effective resource management is complicated by a lack of comprehensive groundwater assessments and an inherent susceptibility to natural and anthropogenic pressures on water quantity and quality. The limited understanding of present-day groundwater dynamics in SIDS is only matched by our insufficient knowledge of past global change in oceanic regions. These combined challenges preclude confident climate predictions and mitigation measures. To address critical knowledge gaps relevant to local resource managers, and extend the sparse South Pacific palaeoclimate record beyond the instrumental period, my project GROTTOS ('GROundwater and climate Through Time – modern Observations and Stalagmite-based recharge estimates on a raised coral atoll') seeks to refine the quantitative understanding of groundwater recharge and its climate drivers on the South Pacific carbonate island of Niue (ca. 19°03′14″S, 169°55′12″W). Taking advantage of the tropical karst geology, GROTTOS firstly aims to provide a holistic assessment of Niue’s present-day recharge dynamics by the novel integration of conventional groundwater monitoring with observations from soil and caves in the unsaturated zone. Aligned with local priorities, groundwater will further be analysed against international quality standards and for the first time tested for major synthetic pollutants. Finally, we aim to apply a newly developed quantitative geochemical proxy for past cave drip rates to several Holocene Niuean stalagmites. With insights from modern observations, this will shed new light on South Pacific climate variability and its effect on groundwater recharge through time.

Keywords: speleothem,cave,groundwater,south pacific,carbonate,karst,soil,monitoring,recharge,quantitative,niue
A new high-performance and environmentally clean engine for heat pumps, using thermo-acoustics technology (BHE)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Innovative Europe
Programme: The European Innovation Council (EIC)
Theme: EIC Accelerator
Destination: Challenges
Action type: EIC actions
Countries involved: Netherlands
Call: Green Deal innovations for the Economic Recovery (HORIZON-EIC-2021-ACCELERATORCHALLENGES-01, 2021)
Start date: 2022-01-01
End date: 2024-06-30
Duration (months): 30.0
Total project cost (EUR): 3572106.25
EU funding (EUR): 2471508.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Heat pumps are the best sustainable solution for heating and cooling, but they have performance limitations and are very expensive, preventing them from having the desirable market traction. Blue Heart Energy (BHE) has developed a disruptive patented technology, based on thermoacoustics, that significantly improves the performance of heat pumps. With our solution, heat pumps turn into flexible, silent and affordable devices. We do not use any HFC-gases and our system is adequate for both new and existing houses. Blue Heart leverages 15+ years of R&D from TNO, a leading Dutch research organization, and has been designed in close collaboration with leading OEMs to seamlessly replace the engine of every heat pump. Our scalable B2B business model will leverage the distribution channels of heat pump manufacturers, ensuring a fast adoption by end customers and accelerating the energy transition. BHE has a multidisciplinary team of 15 people and is led by a highly experienced management team.

Keywords: environmental and green technologies
Pioneering Deep-Tech for Zero-Waste – AgroGrIN Tech’s Breakthrough upcycling solution (the PERFECT project)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Innovative Europe
Programme: The European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT)
Theme: EU prize
Destination: EU Prize for Women Innovators
Action type: Recognition Prize
Countries involved: Portugal
Call: Horizon-EIT-2024-Prize-EPWI-WomenLeadership (HORIZON-EIT-2024-WomenInnovatorsPrize, 2024)
Total project cost (EUR): 0.0
EU funding (EUR): 0.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The goal of the PERFECT project is to highlight the path done by Débora Campos, PhD in Biotechnology and Food Engineering, that aims to bridging Academia and Industry, by transforming her PhD research into a real-world, market-driven solution, which translate her ability to transform scientific innovation into a sustainable business solving global challenges. To do so, Débora launched AgroGrIN Tech, today a startup incorporated under the name of ‘Molecule Message Unipessoal Lda’, where Débora is the Founder & CEO. AgroGrIN Tech (AGT) aims to become a global company dedicated to the production and commercialization of sustainable, natural, and clean label ingredients for human consumption. To this end, waste from the agri-food industry (fruit/vegetable from farmers, producers, and processing industries) is being used as the main raw material in its process. Débora developed a unique solution, which focuses how to effectively process waste and side-streams, changing the process, the technology and relationship with supply-chain stakeholders.

Keywords: upcycling technology transfer women in stem
Boosting Innovation in Organic GREENhouses via stronger NETworks (BIOGREENET)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness
Programme: Food, Bioeconomy Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment
Theme: Bio-Environment
Destination: Innovative governance, environmental observations and digital solutions in support of the Green Deal
Action type: Coordination and support actions
Countries involved: Germany,Sweden,Netherlands,Greece,Italy,Poland,Spain,France,Türkiye,Bulgaria,Switzerland,Belgium
Call: Organic farming thematic networks to compile and share knowledge ready for practice (HORIZON-CL6-2024-GOVERNANCE-01, 2024)
Start date: 2025-10-01
End date: 2029-09-30
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 4113506.86
EU funding (EUR): 3925980.07
Participants: 16
Project status: SIGNED

The EU is a major player in greenhouse production, with about 175.000 ha dedicated to this purpose. In 2021, a total of 13.62 k tonnes of vegetables were cultivated in greenhouses in the EU. However, greenhouse production remains a niche sector for organic production (3% of the total organic area in the EU). Furthermore, Organic greenhouse production is highly knowledge-intensive and represents unique challenges such as the maintenance of soil health, biodiversity and pest control with a limited set of inputs. In addition, structures can be costly, require skilled workforce and present high regional variability in their production strategies. Research findings are not sufficiently integrated into agricultural practices tailored to the diverse needs and conditions faced by greenhouse producers in different areas. Moreover, there are insufficient nodes to establish meaningful connections among farmers. BIOGREENET aims to collect, evaluate, adapt, share and foster the uptake of consolidated practices and promote knowledge exchange by increasing collaboration among communities. Agriculture Knowledge and Innovation Systems (AKIS) will be reinforced, and new local, regional and cross-border platforms will emerge and encourage the sharing of knowledge, innovation and digitalisation among producers, advisors, researchers and other relevant stakeholders across and beyond the EU. A transdisciplinary team of organisations has grouped in BIOGREENET to spark innovation and induce a collaborative environment in the community through a bottom-up approach and digital initiatives that will establish the base of synergies with EIP-AGRI projects and strengthen AKIS. Over a four-year project, the engagement of >3,000 producers and specialised advisors through up-to-date knowledge digital platforms and workshops, will promote implementation of the collected best organic practices in greenhouse production.

Keywords: greenhouse,organic,farming,knowledge,practices,digital,farmers,producers,innovation,platform,akis,eip agri,networking,cost benefit
European periphery and the Yugoslav Understanding of Planning: Researching Ideas for Making Environmental Strategies (E-YU-PRIME)

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: Spain
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2024 (HORIZON-MSCA-2024-PF-01, 2024)
Start date: 2026-01-01
End date: 2027-12-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 209914.56
EU funding (EUR): 209914.56
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

The project, "European periphery and the Yugoslav Understanding of Planning: Researching Ideas for Making Environmental Strategies" (E-YU-PRIME) aims to improve contemporary environmental planning practices in the European periphery by learning from a historically unique form of planning in Yugoslavia called "social planning". This approach sought to combine democratic planning in Yugoslavia as a peripheral country of the Global South with a just green transition to a less materially intensive economy following the publication of the "Limits to Growth" in 1972, making Yugoslavia the only socialist and peripheral country with official state-backed discussions on post-growth planning one can learn from today. By focusing on the forgotten history of Yugoslavia’s planning institutes and their role in the country's industrial and economic policy via archival research and interviews with the last living generation of planners, and their contemporary counterparts in Environmental Ministries in post-Yugoslav EU countries today, the project will explore the ideas and history behind a forgotten post-growth green transition within Yugoslavia and uncover how it impacted the country’s industrial policy from 1972-1991 in order to learn how "social planning" can be used in the European periphery for Europe's Green transition. The findings, which will be published in peer-reviewed journals, a book and will include video interviews and archival footage, will then be a key contribution for contemporary policymakers in in the Western Balkans with possible use to other peripheral countries like Spain and Portugal in events organized by E-YU-PRIME.

Keywords: planning,yugoslavia,eu,environment,post growth