Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Towards a long-term Africa-EU partnership to raise sustainable food and nutrition security in Africa (PROIntensAfrica)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Societal Challenges
Programme: Food security, sustainable agriculture and forestry, marine and maritime and inland water research and the bioeconomy
Action type: Coordination and support actions
Countries involved: Uganda,Austria,Germany,Spain,Ireland,South Africa,Belgium,Hungary,Sweden,Norway,Finland,France,France,Czechia,Netherlands,United Kingdom,Denmark,United Kingdom,Portugal,Botswana,Burkina Faso,Ghana,Senegal
Call: Sustainable intensification pathways of agro-food systems in Africa (H2020-SFS-2014-1, 2014)
Start date: 2015-04-01
End date: 2017-03-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1777873.75
EU funding (EUR): 1047005.0
Participants: 25
Project status: CLOSED

PROIntensAfrica intends to develop a proposal for a long term research and innovation partnership between Europe and Africa, focusing on the improvement of the food and nutrition security and the livelihoods of African farmers by exploring and exploiting the diversity of pathways to sustainable intensification of African agro-food systems. The exploration will include environmental, economic and social externalities along the whole value chains. PROIntensAfrica has the ambition to formulate a research and innovation agenda, identifying the domains in need for further research to realize the potential of African food systems. In addition, PROIntensAfrica will suggest governance mechanisms that are effective in supporting the partnership. Key is the perception that pooling resources is the best way to align existing and initiate new research. This perception follows the policy of the EC, where instruments of joint programming like ERA-NET, JPI and article 185 aim to accomplish synergy and increase the effectiveness of resources. Pooling resources goes beyond the scientific domain and reaches into the policy domain. Consequently, besides being rooted in sound and challenging research, a partnership proposal needs to meet national and international policies to fly. Therefore PROIntensAfrica pay specific attention to engage with the policy domain, as exemplified by the intended creation of a policy support group. The rationale of the project is that a variety of pathways leads to sustainable intensification of African food systems. Different pathways are advocated in literature. High-input farming systems, for example, contrast with organic farming systems, each with their own supporters and criticasters. It is the conviction of the PROIntensAfrica consortium that moving beyond that debate will open exciting new pathways, and that combining elements of different systems will yield innovative systems that are optimally adapted to specific contexts.

Keywords: sustainable intensification,development pathways,africa europe research and innovation partnership
Force nanoscopy of staphylococcal biofilms (NanoStaph)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Advanced grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Physical and analytical chemical sciences
Panel description: Analytical chemistry, chemical theory, physical chemistry/chemical physics
Countries involved: Belgium
Call: ERC Advanced Grant (ERC-2015-AdG, 2015)
Start date: 2016-10-01
End date: 2021-09-30
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2481437.5
EU funding (EUR): 2481437.5
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Staphylococcus aureus is a leading cause of hospital-acquired infections, which are often complicated by the ability of this pathogen to grow as biofilms on indwelling medical devices. Because biofilms protect the bacteria from host defenses and are resistant to many antibiotics, biofilm-related infections are difficult to fight and represent a tremendous burden on our healthcare system. Today, a true molecular understanding of the fundamental interactions driving staphylococcal adhesion and biofilm formation is lacking owing to the lack of high-resolution probing techniques. This knowledge would greatly contribute to the development of novel anti-adhesion therapies for combating biofilm infections. We recently established advanced atomic force microscopy (AFM) techniques for analyzing the nanoscale surface architecture and interactions of microbial cells, allowing us to elucidate key cellular functions. This multidisciplinary project aims at developing an innovative AFM-based force nanoscopy platform in biofilm research, enabling us to understand the molecular mechanisms of S. aureus adhesion in a way that was not possible before, and to optimize the use of anti-adhesion compounds capable to inhibit biofilm formation by this pathogen. NanoStaph will have strong scientific, societal and economical impacts. From the technical perspective, force nanoscopy will represent an unconventional methodology for the high throughput and high resolution characterization of adhesion forces in living cells, especially in bacterial pathogens. In microbiology, the results will radically transform our perception of the molecular bases of biofilm formation by S. aureus. In medicine, the project will provide a new screening method for the fast, label-free analysis of anti-adhesion compounds targeting S. aureus strains, including antibiotic-resistant clinical isolates that are notoriously difficult to treat, thus paving the way to the development of anti-adhesion therapies.

Keywords: atomic force microscopy,nanoscopy,single molecules,single cells,microbial biofilms,adhesion,bacteria,staphylococcus aureus
Innovative Journalism: Enhanced Creativity Tools (INJECT)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Industrial Leadership
Programme: Information and Communication Technologies
Action type: Innovation actions
Countries involved: Germany,Norway,Greece,Norway,France,Netherlands,Netherlands,Netherlands,United Kingdom,United Kingdom
Call: Support technology transfer to the creative industries (H2020-ICT-2016-1, 2016)
Start date: 2017-01-01
End date: 2018-06-30
Duration (months): 18.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1141852.5
EU funding (EUR): 993270.38
Participants: 14
Project status: CLOSED

INJECT’s objective is to transfer new digital technologies to news organisations to improve the creativity and the productivity of journalists, in order to increase the competitiveness of European news and media organisations. To achieve this objective, INJECT will extend and aggregate new digital services and tools already developed by consortium members to support journalist creativity and efficiency, and integrate the services and tools with current CMSs and journalist work tools in order to facilitate their uptake and use in newsrooms. The services will undertake new forms of automated creative search on behalf of journalists, using public sources (e.g. social media) and private digital resources (e.g. digital libraries of political cartoons) to generate sources of inspiration for journalists who are seeking new angles on stories. The tools will provide new interactive support for journalists to think creatively about new stories and reuse news content in new ways to increase productivity. To transfer the new services and tools to Europe’s news and media organisations, INJECT will establish a new INJECT spin-off business, build up and expand multiple vibrant ecosystems of providers and users of new digital technologies, and exploit its position at the heart of Europe’s journalism industry to raise market awareness and take-up on the services and tools. With respect to Call ICT21, INJECT will increase the competitiveness of one of Europe’s most important creative industries – journalism - by stimulating ICT innovation in SMEs, by effectively building up and expanding vibrant EU technological ecosystems that will meet the emerging needs of Europe’s new and existing news and media organisations.

Keywords: journalism,news and media,creativity support,inspirational search,productivity support,content reuse,spin off business,news ecosystems
NanoSTARS imaging for STEM cell therapy for arthritic joints (STARSTEM)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Industrial Leadership
Programme: Nanotechnologies, Advanced Materials, Advanced Manufacturing and Processing, and Biotechnology
Theme: Nanotechnologies
Action type: Research and Innovation actions
Countries involved: Germany,Italy,Spain,Ireland,Ireland,United Kingdom
Call: Nanotechnologies for imaging cellular transplants and regenerative processes in vivo (H2020-NMBP-2017-two-stage, 2017)
Start date: 2018-01-01
End date: 2022-06-30
Duration (months): 54.0
Total project cost (EUR): 5933952.24
EU funding (EUR): 5933952.24
Participants: 9
Project status: CLOSED

STARSTEM proposes imaging of stem cell engraftment in arthritic joints of large animals at clinically relevant depths, using nanoparticles with novel optical properties which enable unprecedented penetration depth and sensitivity. Arthritis is the most prevalent disease worldwide, with osteoarthritis (OA) affecting around 10% of the global population and around 70 million patients in Europe. There is no effective cure for OA at present and the majority of the treatments are symptomatic and not restorative. Stem cell therapy provides a unique opportunity for the self-regeneration of injured cartilage. One of the major hurdles in stem cell mediated-therapy is the inability to diagnose successful engraftment in real time using conventional imaging techniques. STARSTEM will address the major technology gaps to enable imaging of human stem cells at clinically relevant depths. STARSTEM is proposing the use of novel dual plasmonic gold nanostars (nanostars)-enhanced multi-modal imaging to detect stem cell engraftment and tissue repair, and thus their activity and efficacy as a therapy. STARSTEM will harness the best properties of light and sound with a photoacoustic (PA) imaging system for large animal and human finger imaging as proof-of-concept which exploits the unique advantages of our nanomaterial for differential and deep-tissue imaging. Functional imaging using PA enables the real time monitoring of engraftment and the therapeutic process at the site of interest, while highly sensitive anatomical imaging using MRI (using nanostar conjugated with magnetic nanoparticles as contrast agent) enables tracking of the movement and retention in individual organs of the transplanted cells that did not engraft. Algorithms for co-registered PA-MRI imaging approach will enable monitoring of the therapeutic process with high sensitivity. The overall imaging approach is designed to address small to large animal testing for efficacy and safety prior to clinical testing on humans.

Keywords: nanostars,photoacoustic imaging,optical coherence tomography,deep tissue imaging,multi modal imaging
In-Field Live Sensing of Nitrate in Crops for Real-Time Fertilization Adjustment (LiveSEN)

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 (ERC-2017-PoC, 2017)
Start date: 2018-06-01
End date: 2019-11-30
Duration (months): 18.0
Total project cost (EUR): 149218.75
EU funding (EUR): 149218.75
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Today it is common practice for farmers to provide crops with more fertilizers than the plants need. However, this practice has negative economic and environmental impacts. While accurate and timely knowledge of Nitrogen availability could enable adjustment of the inputs, the existing analytical tools for Nitrogen quantification are insufficiently used because of various limitations related to costs, laborious procedures or sensitivity to environmental factors. Our nitrate biosensor recently developed based on findings from the ERC starting Grant REDOX SHIELDS by-passes these limitations and has the potential to massively increase the frequency of nitrate sensing in agriculture. We designed single-use electrochemical biosensors which can be used by untrained users to get accurate nitrate readings directly in the field. With the ERC Proof-of-Concept project LiveSEN we now propose to explore commercialization possibilities of this nitrate biosensor. Our vision is to involve the farmers to perform independently the nitrate analysis while on the field, right before fertilization. The recommendation for nitrogen input will be provided immediately through a smartphone app connected to a cloud system. Our business model will rely on a low-cost or no-cost measurements coupled to a paid recommendation service. The service will be accessible to the farmers through a monthly fee or may be covered by larger companies such as fertilizer providers that have an interest in gaining customers binding through exclusivity. Furthermore, we would like to provide our customers with predictions for nitrate needs through a big data approach which integrates biosensor readings with satellite imagery and weather information. Our idea has the potential to increase yields in agriculture by 5 to 10% through optimized use of nitrogen fertilizers. This will save costs for farmers while reducing pollution of the environment, especially water resources.

Keywords: o2 interference,nitrate sensing,point of use sensing,big data,nitrogen fertilization
Pridiktiv - Exploring European expansion through 4 pilot studies (PRIDIKTIV)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Societal Challenges
Programme: Health, demographic change and wellbeing
Theme: Active ageing and self-management of health
Action type: SME instrument
Countries involved: Belgium
Call: Accelerating market introduction of ICT solutions for Health, Well-Being and Ageing Well (H2020-SMEINST-1-2016-2017, 2017)
Start date: 2017-08-01
End date: 2018-01-31
Duration (months): 6.0
Total project cost (EUR): 71429.0
EU funding (EUR): 50000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Pridiktiv.Care is a mobile (smartphone, tablet & desktop) communication platform, which allows caretakers and medical personnel to reduce administration with 66% and increase the quality of care by real-time up to date information with the final goal to let caretakers focus on what they do best. Pridiktiv.Care’s communication platform focuses on 3 pillars: real-time communication between care personnel, telemetric integration of sensors and medical devices and an intelligent algorithm that predicts care issues even before they occur. As Pridiktiv is a two-sided platform, all data gathered by care personnel will allow management of residential care institutions to review all group data to make smarter business decisions. The Pridiktiv solution has been co-created with Belgium’s largest residential care group. As European healthcare systems differ, the product will also need to undergo modifications to capture every need of that specific healthcare system (from a user insights, to healthcare quality, legal limitations or security). The upset of the feasibility study will be to organize trials with 4 residential elderly care institutions in 4 different European countries (France, Germany, The Netherlands & Belgium). The final goal is to understand the differences for every pilot country and translate these differences into product modifications that are market ready. Secondly, for every pilot a full landscape study of the residential elderly care market will be done and translated into a concrete gotomarket model.

Keywords: digital health,innovation,elderly care,residential care,european expansian
Sustainability Innovations in Global Production Networks – Addressing Socio-Ecological Challenges in the Global Economy (SUSTINNO)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: Marie-Sklodowska-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Individual Fellowships (IF)-Global Fellowships
Action type: Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions
Panel: Social Sciences and Humanities
Countries involved: South Africa,United Kingdom
Call: Individual Fellowships (H2020-MSCA-IF-2017, 2017)
Start date: 2018-11-01
End date: 2022-01-30
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 203200.2
EU funding (EUR): 203200.2
Participants: 2
Project status: CLOSED

In the 21st century,researchers, policy makers and practitioners are confronted with formidable environmental and societal mega problems. Sustainability innovations that address these issues are gaining stature in research and policy. The development of innovative and context-adapted solutions is a complex issue; how to develop sustainable solutions that adequately address local and global needs is the critical challenge of our times. The aim of the project is to investigate opportunities and barriers for more sustainable development processes in the global economy. This will be realized through a novel approach that integrates the Global Production Network (GPN) approach with concepts of innovation studies focusing on sustainability innovations. Conceptually, both of these research fields investigate how global environmental and socio-economic challenges can be addressed. However, their mutual engagement is hindered by different research paradigms, terminologies and concepts. By themselves the two research strands remain limited in explaining how sustainable solutions can be created, implemented and diffused in the global economy. My proposed project is located at the interface of these approaches. The overall research question asks how sustainability innovations can be developed and implemented within GPNs in order to address complex socio-ecological challenges, and facilitate better working conditions in the global economy. The objectives of this interdisciplinary project are: 1 To develop an integrated conceptual framework of sustainability innovations in GPNs. 2. To gain empirical insights on sustainability innovations in GPNs from a Global South perspective. 3. To derive and disseminate recommendations for policy makers and practitioners on how to address complex socio- ecological challenges. 4. To further my academic career by enhancing my skills and networks with the goal of securing a permanent academic position within the next five years.

Keywords: sustainability,innovation,upgrading,global production networks,global value chains,south africa
Metal Assisted chemical etching of Gratings for X-ray InterferometriC systems (MAGIC)

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: Switzerland,Switzerland
Call: ERC-Proof of Concept-2016 (ERC-2016-PoC, 2016)
Start date: 2016-11-01
End date: 2018-04-30
Duration (months): 18.0
Total project cost (EUR): 149997.0
EU funding (EUR): 136197.0
Participants: 2
Project status: CLOSED

Phase contrast and scattering-based (dark-field) X-ray imaging can potentially revolutionize the radiological approach to medical imaging because they are intrinsically capable of detecting subtle differences in the electron density of a material and of measuring the effective integrated local small-angle scattering power generated by the microscopic density fluctuations in the specimen. Within the context of the ERC-Starting Grant PhaseX (310005) we deeply investigated and further developed gratings- based interferometry, a rapidly establishing phase sensitive technique. In particular, we generated seminal work towards the translation of phase contrast imaging into clinic with the world-wide first in-vitro phase-contrast mammographic investigation of whole breast mastectomies and the first reader study investigating potential clinical relevance of phase-contrast mammography. Grating fabrication is the main bottleneck so far preventing grating-based X-ray phase-contrast interferometry from being applied at high energies and large Field of View (FOV). With PhaseX, we addressed the fundamentals of grating fabrication in order to deliver high-quality diffraction gratings with high-aspect ratio. In particular, we explored unconventional fabrication techniques in order to go beyond the physical limits of the conventional approaches and we developed the idea of innovative technology at the basis of this ERC-PoC project (MAGIC). Among the tested wet etching techniques, Metal Assisted Chemical Etching (MACE) showed exceptional performances for fabrication of large area silicon gratings with high aspect ratio. The main idea of MAGIC is to use MACE for grating fabrication with characteristics that fulfil high energy and large FOV applications: we target the same quality with a competitive price in order to keep the ratio quality/cost in a favorable range with additional advantages of large FOV and possibility of serving a large market on a quicker way.

Keywords: x ray imaging,phase contrast imaging,diffraction gratings,microfabrication
Development of a model system to study the role of chromatin factors during transgenerational epigenetic inheritance (TEI) in C. elegans (TEI)

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: Life Sciences
Countries involved: United Kingdom
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): 183454.8
EU funding (EUR): 183454.8
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Non DNA-sequence based inheritance has been observed in many organisms from microbes to man and likely impacts public health. The mechanisms of non DNA-sequence based inheritance remain largely unknown. However, some examples of non DNA-sequence based inheritance in mammals, plants and invertebrates are linked to the control of selfish, transposable elements in the genome. Here we propose to discover the mechanistic basis of multi-generational non DNA-sequence based inheritance, also referred to as transgenerational epigenetic inheritance (TEI), using the laboratory animal model Caenorhabditis elegans. Specifically, our goal is to identify chromatin and non-coding RNA “epigenetic” marks that transfer information from generation to generation in C. elegans. C. elegans is a great model for this work as it has a generation time of only three days, has a powerful genetics toolkit and its chromatin and RNA pathways are largely conserved in humans. Towards this goal we have established a novel assay we named piRNA-related insertional chromatin immunoprecipitation (piChIP). Using this piChIP system, our specific aims are: Aim-1: Identification of novel non-coding RNAs in the germline nuclear RNAi pathway - Method: RNA-seq Aim-2: Identification of novel proteins and histone PTMs in the germline nuclear RNAi pathway - Method: SILAC proteomics and Mass Spectrometry

Keywords: epigenetics,rnai,nuclear rnai,pirna,22g rna,transgenerational