Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Advanced MR methods for characterization of microstructural brain damage (MICROBRADAM)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: Marie-Sklodowska-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Research and innovation staff exchange
Action type: Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions
Panel: Life Sciences
Countries involved: Italy,Italy,Finland,Czechia,United States
Call: Marie Skłodowska-Curie Research and Innovation Staff Exchange (RISE) (H2020-MSCA-RISE-2015, 2015)
Start date: 2015-11-01
End date: 2019-10-31
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 540000.0
EU funding (EUR): 540000.0
Participants: 7
Project status: CLOSED

NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance)-based approaches have affirmed as extremely valuable for applications in neurosciences. Nonetheless, the exquisite flexibility of tissue contrast in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) that can be obtained by proper manipulation of nuclear spins still offers room for technological improvements which can be quickly expanded to clinical routine. In particular, there is extreme need of imaging methods that allow a correct assessment of microstructural damage in many brain diseases, including – but not limited to – neurodegenerative diseases. Indeed, current MRI techniques suffer from poor specificity and ultimately lack the ability to identify the microscopic biophysical and biological mechanisms related to the specific features of the pathology. This project aims at expanding the set of MR based techniques available to neuroscientists to characterize microstructural damage, assessing the usefulness of these approaches in some specific pathologies where they offer more promise. Notably, this project aims also at establishing the increased specificity and sensitivity of newly developed and current techniques when merged in a truly multiparametric analysis approach. This project is heavily based on networking activities for exchanging the complimentary knowledge available at the different world-class academic and commercial EU and third country sites. The novel MRI pulse sequences and data analyses approaches tested and validated during the course of the project will be available at each site of the consortium, and will be made available to the scientific community as well.

Keywords: new contrast mechanisms,animal models,humans,neurocomputing
Integrated sustainability assessment of social and technological innovations towards urban food systems (SustUrbanFoods)

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: Environment and Geosciences
Countries involved: Italy
Call: Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF-EF) (H2020-MSCA-IF-2015, 2015)
Start date: 2016-06-01
End date: 2018-05-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 168277.2
EU funding (EUR): 168277.2
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Urban food systems are sprouting around cities of developed countries to improve the sustainability of cities and citizens’ diets. In particular, urban food systems are being developed upon social and technological innovations to become competitive in the urban environment. A limited number of studies have worked on quantifying the sustainability performance of urban food activities. Even more, studies lack of a three-bottom perspective that integrates the environment, economy and society dimensions. SustUrbanFoods aims to develop an interdisciplinary methodological framework to assess the sustainability of urban food systems with the aim of providing with tools and data for supporting policies and decisions on sustainable urban food systems towards local and green economies. The integration of life cycle assessment and ecosystem services accounting methods is the basis of the SustUrbanFoods’ scheme to analyze the impacts and benefits of urban food systems on the three dimensions of sustainability. Case studies in 4 different countries that exemplify diverse social and technological innovations will be assessed. SustUrbanFoods will provide the fellow with an ideal learning-by-doing framework for improving knowledge, scientific and soft skills, particularly through knowledge exchange and training with the host institution and the partner company. Results will be disseminated to both academia and general public.

Keywords: life cycle assessment,ecosystem services,urban agriculture,local food systems,innovations
BIG4 - Biosystematics, Informatics and Genetics of the big 4 insect groups: training tomorrow's researchers and entrepreneurs (BIG4)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: Marie-Sklodowska-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Innovative Training Networks (ITN)-European Training Networks
Action type: Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions
Panel: Life Sciences
Countries involved: Austria,Germany,Australia,Austria,Germany,Spain,Finland,Finland,Sweden,Sweden,Belgium,China,New Zealand,Switzerland,Bulgaria,Czechia,Czechia,United States,Japan,Denmark
Call: Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Networks (ITN-ETN) (H2020-MSCA-ITN-2014, 2014)
Start date: 2015-01-01
End date: 2018-12-31
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 3874278.6
EU funding (EUR): 3874278.6
Participants: 23
Project status: CLOSED

BIG4 is a global network to amalgamate the cutting edge methods of genomics, phylogenetics, informatics, taxonomy, semantic biodiversity publishing and citizen science, into highly competitive cross-disciplinary training programme for 15 ESRs with a stronghold in biosystematics. These 15 future leaders will extend the exploration of the four biggest groups of living organisms in a more forward looking way than has been attempted before. The urgent focus on the “big four” insect groups, i.e. Coleoptera (beetles), Hymenoptera (wasps, ants and bees), Diptera (flies and mosquitoes), and Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) is justified by the super abundance of this form of Life, and by the growing need by science and society to make better use of the enormous potential hidden in their biological diversity. BIG4 aims [1] to gain a robust systematic knowledge that explains the evolutionary origin, diversification, past and present distributions of living organisms, [2] to model their future dispersal and [3] to predict the traits of species that are yet unknown. Additionally, BIG4 strives for [4] implementing organismal features into engineering, medicine, agricultural or environmental solutions, the insect flight mechanics and more effective pollination to mention just a few. Such knowledge is in a particularly high demand in respect of the four biggest insects groups comprising the most important model organisms, the most dangerous pests or disease vectors, the most abundant invasive species and the most fragile entire species communities undergoing extinction due to habitat destruction. By integrating academia with the business and public sectors, BIG4 will greatly increase services and beneficial products provided by the biosystematics as a science. BIG4 will place insect mega-diversity as a powerful service for economic and societal needs such as environmental monitoring, biological control, biomedicine, or ecological farming.

Keywords: biological systematics,entomology,phylogenetics,biodiversity,citizen science
Between Two Brains: Brain oscillatory basis of human collaboration (BetweenTwoBrains)

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: Life Sciences
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call: Individual Fellowships (H2020-MSCA-IF-2017, 2017)
Start date: 2018-04-04
End date: 2024-04-09
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 183454.8
EU funding (EUR): 183454.8
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

BetweenTwoBrains aims to investigate the oscillatory brain mechanisms underlying a fundamental human social behavior: collaboration. A growing dichotomy in the current understanding of this important behavior motivates this goal - Whereas there is an increasing number of empirical observations that interpersonal neural synchronization supports collaboration, the challenge is to understand the mechanism and function of this synchronization in the context of human social behavior. BetweenTwoBrains tackles this challenge in three steps. 1st Relate collaborative behavior to specific brain oscillatory networks (using dual-magnetoencephalography, dual-MEG). 2nd Test the hypothesis that there is a causal link between interpersonal neural synchrony and teamwork success (using dual transcranial alternating current stimulation, dual-tACS). Finally, 3rd, translate this research to understand the oscillatory basis of collaboration deficits in individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Beyond basic research, this project will yield impact in a wide range of industries relying on teamwork (e.g., ER medical teams), and in potential new treatments for ASD. Excellent training in cognitive neuroscience research will be provided by leading experts at the University of Birmingham, UK (tACS and M/EEG) and the Aalto University, Finland (dual-MEG). After six years of research experience in experimental psychology at North American universities, the neuroscience training and reintegration opportunities provided by this fellowship will help me become an independent scientist in the European research panorama.

Keywords: social cognition,collaboration,brain oscillations,autism
Metal Hydrides Hydrogen Storage (MHS)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Industrial Leadership
Programme: Innovation in SMEs
Action type: SME instrument
Countries involved: Switzerland
Call: SME instrument (H2020-SMEInst-2018-2020-1, 2019)
Start date: 2019-05-01
End date: 2019-08-31
Duration (months): 4.0
Total project cost (EUR): 71429.0
EU funding (EUR): 50000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe, which can be easily generated by electrolysis and combusted to generate energy without emissions. But the storage of hydrogen is today very dangerous (explosive when mixed with air) and costly, due to large storage tanks needed for sufficient energy capacity and due to energy intensive processes (compression, liquefaction, etc.) to store hydrogen in compressed or liquid form. Metal Hydrides Hydrogen Storage System or MHS is the 100% safe and first economically feasible technology to store hydrogen in forms of metal hydrides. Today it is only a prototype, but tomorrow it will store the hydrogen energy for an infinite number of applications: first to buildings, then on medium/long term to power generators, to produce synthetic fuels, industrial plants and for hydrogen fuel cell cars.
Learning to Learn - Medial Prefrontal Cortex as Meta-Learning System in the Brain (Learning2Learn)

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: Switzerland
Call: Individual Fellowships (H2020-MSCA-IF-2020, 2020)
Start date: 2021-04-01
End date: 2023-03-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 191149.44
EU funding (EUR): 191149.44
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

In a changing environment the ability to continually and rapidly learn new behaviors is crucial for humans and animals to survive. How the brain stores and integrates new information without forgetting (continual learning, CL) and utilizes prior knowledge to quickly adapt to new situations (fast forward generalization, FFG) remains a mystery. To shed light on this crucial question I propose a novel interdisciplinary approach that derives inspiration from a theoretical machine-learning approach for artificial neural networks (ANN) and simultaneously addresses FFG and CL. In this dual-network model, a so-called meta-network learns to identify the context for all previous tasks and modulates a second, stimulus-processing network, in a task/context specific manner to efficiently solve the task. As a result, similar task contexts elicit the selection of similar stimulus processing networks thereby enabling FFG. In the brain, the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) is known to receive contextual information (environment, setting), to store task information and to project to sensory areas. This makes it a promising candidate to function as a meta-network in the brain. In the proposed study, I will investigate if and how the mPFC affects sensory processing in a task-specific manner during CL and FFG, functioning as a meta-network. I will utilize cutting-edge experimental techniques including miniaturized microscopes in freely behaving mice to record neuronal populations in mPFC during FFG and CL combined with chemo- and optogenetic tools. To investigate how mPFC affects stimulus processing on the single neuron level, I will combine calcium and voltage imaging in brain slices. This interdisciplinary project will provide novel insights into the possible implementation of meta-learning in the brain to address CL and FFG. Completion of this innovative project in the multidisciplinary environment of my host lab will provide me with the ideal setting to reach scientific independence.

Keywords: cortical circuits,medial prefrontal cortex,visual cortex,meta learning,gain modulation,plasticity,continual learning,visual discrimination
Deconstructing in vivo glia-to-neuron conversion (Neuro-ReprOmics)

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-2020, 2020)
Start date: 2022-09-01
End date: 2024-08-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 212933.76
EU funding (EUR): 212933.76
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Direct lineage reprogramming of cell identity in the nervous system offers the prospect of remodelling diseased brain circuits. Recent years have provided evidence for the possibility of converting brain glia into neurons in vivo. This may eventually allow to regenerate neurons that have degenerated as a consequence of injury or disease. Yet, the process by which glial cells give up their original identity and adopt a neuronal fate remains by large enigmatic. Moreover, the knowledge of molecular underpinnings of glia-to-neuron conversion is lacunary and virtually nothing is known about the process in vivo. The Berninger laboratory has discovered specific cocktails of reprogramming factors that gives rise to induced neurons in the mouse cerebral cortex, with some cells adopting hallmark features of fast-spiking, parvalbumin-expressing interneurons, a neuronal subtype that is highly vulnerable in neuropsychiatric and neurological disorders. The aim of my project addresses the question of how these neurogenic reprogramming factors remodel gene expression programs as glial cells convert into neurons. Thus, I will utilize defined combinations of reprogramming factors leading to the generation the distinct types of neurons to elucidate how and when the reprogramming trajectories diverge. Towards this end, I will establish single cell RNA sequencing as well as scATAC-seq from cells undergoing conversion in vivo to uncover the transcriptomic and epigenomic changes that drive this process. The outcome of this study is twofold, as this will break new ground in our understanding of how transcription factors can overcome existing cell-specific gene expression programs to induce new cellular identities, and at the same time identify new molecular handles for rendering reprogrammed cells more similar to their endogenous counterparts in an attempt to improve the prospects of using this strategy for brain repair.

Keywords: direct lineage reprogramming,cell fate,in vivo glia to neuron conversion,single cell rna seq,single cell atac seq,proneural,pioneer factor ascl1
Investigating micro-RNA Dynamics using Paramagnetic NMR Spectroscopy (PARAMIR)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Physical and analytical chemical sciences
Panel description: Analytical chemistry, chemical theory, physical chemistry/chemical physics
Countries involved: France
Call: ERC Starting Grant (ERC-2018-STG, 2018)
Start date: 2019-02-01
End date: 2025-01-31
Duration (months): 72.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1633500.0
EU funding (EUR): 1633500.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Over the last decades, new discoveries have revealed an ever-increasing diversity of RNA functions, profoundly modifying the conceptual framework of molecular biology. This is the case of micro-RNAs (miRNA), a fascinating class of small non-coding RNA that play essential roles in RNA induced gene silencing and are estimated to target up to 60% of protein-coding genes in humans. RNA functional diversity is often triggered by conformational changes, so capturing the dynamics of these molecules is key to a precise understanding of their function, which in turn is essential to control their activity. Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy is extremely well suited to investigate dynamical processes. However, the sparsity of measureable NMR data in a RNA sample represents a major bottleneck, preventing so far an accurate description of RNA conformational fluctuations. This project aims to overcome this barrier by developing paramagnetic NMR for RNA. By chemically modifying an RNA, I will introduce paramagnetic tags to strategic positions so as to acquire NMR data from otherwise silent substrate. Adequate computational and analytical models will be developed to decode the experimental data into an atomic-level description of dynamics. These goals require a leap forward with respect to today’s approaches. I propose to achieve this by combining innovative sample preparation strategies and NMR experiments, high magnetic fields, and MD simulations. With these methods, I will enable the determination of the dynamic landscape of let-7, the first miRNA discovered in humans, involved in cell proliferation and differentiation and oncogenesis. This project will yield a broadly applicable method for the structural and dynamic characterization of RNA with unprecedented details. This knowledge will improve our fundamental biochemical and biophysical conception of RNA, opening new avenues for bioengineering and establishing the bases for rational RNA-oriented drug discovery.

Keywords: nmr spectroscopy,micro rna,paramagnetic nmr,conformational dynamics,let 7,rna induced silencing complex,molecular dynamic simulations
Liaison in Scientific Training for European auditory Neuroscience (LISTEN)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: Marie-Sklodowska-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Innovative Training Networks (ITN)-European Training Networks
Action type: Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions
Panel: Life Sciences
Countries involved: Germany,Germany,Spain,France,Netherlands,United Kingdom,United Kingdom
Call: Innovative Training Networks (H2020-MSCA-ITN-2016, 2016)
Start date: 2016-12-01
End date: 2020-11-30
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2569501.62
EU funding (EUR): 2569501.62
Participants: 8
Project status: CLOSED

This ITN will train 10 ESRs to meet the urgent need for translation of Auditory Neuroscience into commercial and pharmaceutical products to treat hearing disorders including tinnitus. Tinnitus is the debilitating perception of imaginary sound that is often associated with hearing loss. This Liaison in Scientific Training for European auditory Neuroscience (LISTEN) is a consortium of top hearing scientists in industry and academia, who specialize in hearing mechanisms and translation to commercial applications, enabling broad career opportunities for our ESRs. The multidisciplinary training environment includes leading labs and companies from 7 EU states, specialized in research, drug and instrumental development. Hearing is vulnerable to noise trauma, medication and aging, and in the future hearing loss will be one of the top ten disease burdens for Europe. Europe must rapidly exploit academic knowledge to invest in treatments for hearing disorders including drug development. Young scientists entering this field must acquire a broad and detailed background in neuroscience, acoustics, biophysics and signal processing, and employ genetic, molecular, pharmacology, anatomy and imaging methods. No single European institute can encompass this, but together, our LISTEN network will enable young scientists and entrepreneurs to unravel hearing mechanisms and design the next-generation of treatments. Work Package 1 (WP1) focuses on neural coding of sounds from the cochlea to neocortex, including auditory processing for localizing sounds and complex cognitive tasks in both normal hearing and following hearing loss. WP2 will identify molecular and genetic mechanisms of the hyperexcitability underlying tinnitus, exploit new techniques for monitoring tinnitus and develop new drug therapies. Integration of the WPs will enable new insights into disease mechanisms and WP3 will provide the ESRs with an essential multidisciplinary background for their research and successful careers.

Keywords: hearing,tinnitus,coding,sound localization,hearing loss,plasticity,cochlear implant