Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Safeguarding Cell Identities: Mechanisms Counteracting Cell Fate Reprogramming (REPROWORM)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Cellular, Developmental and Regenerative Biology
Panel description: Structure and function of the cell, cell-cell communication, embryogenesis, tissue differentiation, organogenesis, growth, development, evolution of development, organoids, stem cells, regeneration, therapeutic approaches
Countries involved: Germany
Call: ERC Starting Grant (ERC-2014-STG, 2014)
Start date: 2015-03-01
End date: 2021-02-28
Duration (months): 72.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1457938.0
EU funding (EUR): 1457938.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Regenerating tissues by reprogramming cells has the potential to become a therapeutic approach for replacing lost tissues in patients suffering from injury or degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s or Muscular Dystrophy. Strategies to generate required tissues using embryonic stem cells or induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) are associated with either ethical or medical safety issues. An alternative strategy is to directly reprogram cells to the required tissue type by forced expression of cell fate-inducing transcription factors (TFs). Direct reprogramming (DR) has the potential to circumvent unsafe proliferative pluripotent cell stages and it allows in vivo procedures. However to date, DR is successful in only a few cell types and it is not well understood why most cells are refractory to DR. Recently, we provided evidence that inhibitory mechanisms play an important role in restricting cell fate conversion. We identified factors inhibiting direct conversion of germ cells into specific neurons or muscle cells. Additionally, preliminary studies in our group revealed other factors that inhibit ectopic cell fate induction in somatic cells. The objective of this proposal is to further understand mechanisms that restrict DR. We aim to identify and characterize factors involved in safeguarding differentiated cells and thereby counteract induction of ectopic fates in different cells. We use C. elegans as an in vivo model and apply large-scale forward and reverse genetic screenings with high-throughput. Next generation sequencing, tissue-specific biochemistry (ChIP-seq, SILAC) and 4D imaging will be used to elucidate the molecular function of identified DR-regulating factors. Finally, we will test the ability to convert cells in aged animals and assess the effects of ageing on the ability to induce ectopic cell fates. Our research has the potential to facilitate the generation of specific tissues from different cellular contexts for future biomedical approaches.

Keywords: cell fate maintenance,transdifferentiation,c elegans
Commercialising MR-HIFU: an Image-Guided Local Drug-Delivery Platform (iGOLDD)

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: Netherlands
Call: ERC Proof of Concept Grant (ERC-2015-PoC, 2015)
Start date: 2016-10-01
End date: 2018-03-31
Duration (months): 18.0
Total project cost (EUR): 150000.0
EU funding (EUR): 150000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Reducing the high attrition rates in drug development continues to be a key challenge for the pharmaceutical industry. With average drug development costs of over $2 billion dollar and a 95% failure rate of cancer drugs in Phase I trials, a new paradigm is highly needed. iGOLDD represents a unique opportunity for the commercialisation of a powerful alternative drug-delivery solution that has the potential to locally boost the efficacy of many drugs for a range of clinical indications. Prof. Moonen and his team, as part of the ERC project Sound Pharma, have developed a powerful technology platform, based on magnetic resonance guided focused ultrasound (MR-HIFU), that can be used for high-precision image-guided drug delivery, HIFU is the only known technique capable of completely non-invasive, precisely controlled heating deep inside the human body. MRI allows continuous imaging of the tumour and surrounding health tissue for target definition. iGOLDD aims to commercialise this unique technology as a stand-alone drug delivery platform that can be widely offered to pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to improve new or existing drugs or reuse shelved therapies. In iGOLDD we will further optimise the HIFU technology (in particular temperature control and motion correction) for drug delivery of macromolecular drugs, such as antibody-drug conjugates, to demonstrate the large potential of our drug delivery platform. In addition, we will prepare for market introduction, by defining the exact business strategy, model and positioning for commercial success. We will develop the business strategy that offers the most promise, based on the technological aspects of the project, the market needs and trends, the end-user needs and the IP-position. During this project, we will gain technical and commercial proof-of-concept, which will provide us with the necessary information regarding potential commercialisation routes.

Keywords: image guided,drug delivery,ultrasound,magnetic resonance,mr hifu,platform technology,non invasive,temperature control,precision
A Palaeoreanalysis To Understand Decadal Climate Variability (PALAEO-RA)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Advanced grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Earth system science
Panel description: Physical geography, geology, geophysics, atmospheric sciences, oceanography, climatology, cryology, ecology, global environmental change, biogeochemical cycles, natural resources management
Countries involved: Switzerland
Call: ERC Advanced Grant (ERC-2017-ADG, 2017)
Start date: 2018-10-01
End date: 2023-09-30
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2499975.0
EU funding (EUR): 2499975.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Climatic variations at decadal scales, such as phases of accelerated warming, weak monsoons, or widespread subtropical drought, have profound effects on society and the economy. Understanding such variations requires insights from the past. However, no data sets of past climate are available to study decadal variability of large-scale climate with state-of-the-art diagnostic methods. Currently available data sets are limited to statistical reconstructions of local or regional surface climate. The PALAEO-RA project will produce the first ever comprehensive, 3-dimensional, physically consistent reconstruction of the global climate system at a monthly scale for the past six centuries. This palaeoreanalysis is based on combining information from early instrumental measurements, historical documents (e.g., capitalizing on large amounts of newly available data from China), and proxies (e.g., tree rings) with a large ensemble of climate model simulations. To achieve this novel combination, a completely new data assimilation system for palaeoclimatological data will be developed. The unique data sets produced in this project will become reference data sets for studying past climatic variations (i) for diagnostic studies of interannual-to-decadal variability, (ii) as a benchmark for model simulations and (iii) for climate impact studies. Using the data produced, the project will analyse episodes of slowed or accelerated global warming, decadal subtropical drought periods, episodes of expanding or contracting tropics, slowed or strengthened monsoons, changes in storm tracks, blocking and associated weather extremes, and links between Arctic and midlatitude climate. The analyses will provide new insights into the processes governing decadal variability of weather and climate.

Keywords: climate data,data assimilation,historical climatology,climate variations
The first non-fermentative production process for low cost synthesis of biodegradable PHAs bioplastic from vegetal oils and fats (POLIPO)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Industrial Leadership
Programme: Innovation in SMEs
Action type: SME instrument
Countries involved: Italy
Call: SME instrument (H2020-SMEInst-2018-2020-1, 2018)
Start date: 2018-06-01
End date: 2018-11-30
Duration (months): 6.0
Total project cost (EUR): 71429.0
EU funding (EUR): 50000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

POLìPO S.r.l. has developed the first chemical route (not based on bacterial fermentation) to produce PHA from vegetal oils and fats. PHA is the only bioplastic which is 100% degradable in natural environment but is presently only applied in niche applications due the high costs of production. POLìPO's chemical route to PHA represents a game changing technology in the field of bioplastic, making it possible to produce a biodegradable bioplastic with key advantages with respect to current fermentative route: reduction of production cost > 35 %; reduction of investment for production plant of around 70-80%; reduction of plant size of around 50%; use of non-food raw materials. The unique selling point is then to enable production of 100% biodegradable PHAs from different non-food oil sources in a competitive manner for large scale applications (e.g. food packaging) which are presently not allowed by the high price of PHAs. This will allow as first step to substitute bio-based PET in this segment, worth 800 kt/year in 2016, and successively targeting substitution of fossil based plastics. After validation at pre-industrial scale, POLìPO’s process will be licensed to existing and new industrial players in the bioplastic manufacturing sector, in the form of License Agreement or Joint Venture. In the feasibility study POLìPO needs to 1) carry out Customer Validation for the technology, 2) Define the industrial upstream and downstream value chain and profiling industrial partners and investors 3) Refine the Business Plan the Business Model and the Investment strategy.

Keywords: bioplastics,pha production,biodegradable,non fermentative
Titles of the New Testament: A New Approach to Manuscripts and the History of Interpretation (TiNT)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Cultures and cultural production
Panel description: Literary studies, cultural studies, study of the arts, philosophy
Countries involved: Ireland,United Kingdom
Call: ERC Starting Grant (ERC-2019-STG, 2019)
Start date: 2020-12-01
End date: 2025-11-30
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1498451.0
EU funding (EUR): 1385951.0
Participants: 2
Project status: SIGNED

The problem this project addresses is that operative modes for interpreting the Greek New Testament (NT) rely upon critical editions, not manuscripts. NT editions are scholarly abstractions that focus on reconstructing an “original” text, and that fail to account for a rich manuscript tradition that preserves evidence for key disciplinary questions. Instead of asking how manuscripts help reconstruct a text, this project examines what manuscripts say about the ways the NT was interpreted by the communities that produced them. This is accomplished by comprehensively analysing the forms and wordings of the title preserved in all non-lectionary NT manuscripts (c. 3500). Titles are malleable paratexts that provide a substantive vector to rethink approaches to the NT by seriously considering contexts of production and interpretation ranging from 2rd century Egypt to modern Mt. Athos, moving beyond the 1st century Roman world. Titles demonstrate that material and paratextual variance in form and design are constitutive aspects of the NT. Adopting New Philology as a methodology, the project critiques dominant approaches by taking each manuscript seriously as evidence for specific reading events, using titles as primary evidence. Titular analysis informs a range of topics, including authorship, locales of production, contexts of use, bibliography, and literary interpretation. The NT is best understood as an omnibus of manuscripts that constitute specific reading events, reflecting the interpretations of the communities that used them. The NT has never been a single reconstructed text, but a collection of texts in specific material and paratextual contexts. Despite the value inherent in the manuscripts, scholarship has focused almost exclusively on the NT’s original context of composition. Resisting this trend, the project argues that titles are a rich resource for mapping the interpretation of the NT in contexts overlooked by critical scholarship: its own manuscript matrix.
Just noticeable differences in affect: Estimating the minimum change in positive and negative affect that meaningfully impact people’s subjective experience of emotions (MEANINGFEEL)

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: Social Sciences and Humanities
Countries involved: Germany,Germany
Call: Individual Fellowships (H2020-MSCA-IF-2019, 2019)
Start date: 2021-02-15
End date: 2023-08-16
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 174806.41
EU funding (EUR): 174806.4
Participants: 2
Project status: SIGNED

Positive and negative affect are two components of experienced emotions that are the foundation of our subjective well-being, with important influences on mental and physical health. Self-report measures have been developed to quantify positive and negative affect, which can then be statistically compared within or across groups. They are used as indicators of subjective well-being in large surveys of European populations and as outcome measures in thousands of research studies. We can establish whether there has been a statistically significant change in affect over time, or whether there is a statistically significant difference between people. But, using the results of surveys and research to shape social policies or medical treatments requires the answer to a crucial yet unanswered question: How much do measurements of change in affect reflect people’s meaningful experiences? One way to gauge the meaningfulness of a statistical change in affect is to determine whether people subjectively perceive the difference in their emotional experience—whether they feel different. The proposed project addresses this question using the just noticeable difference approach, from psychophysics, in a first ever application to estimate the minimum change in positive and negative affect that meaningfully impacts people’s subjective experience of emotions, also examining potential cross-cultural variability. Researchers, policy decision makers, and the public can use this project’s results to evaluate findings from surveys and research studies in terms of meaningfulness. The methods may be adapted for other fields interested in people’s subjective experience and used to estimate the smallest change in an outcome measure that may be considered meaningful. The researcher has relevant expertise in the project’s domain and the host provides the perfect environment for the successful implementation of the research and training activities, ensuring the researcher’s career advancement.

Keywords: subjective experience of emotions,positive and negative affect,affective science,emotions
International experiences of digital empowerment in a climate justice frame (DIGI-EMP)

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: Social Sciences and Humanities
Countries involved: Italy
Call: Individual Fellowships (H2020-MSCA-IF-2020, 2020)
Start date: 2021-05-01
End date: 2023-04-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 171473.28
EU funding (EUR): 171473.28
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

This project aims to explore whether and (if so) how individuals affected by climate change experience and perceive empowerment through digital crowdsourcing campaigns provided by organisational actors. Unequal inclusion in climate change debates and decision-making processes remains a significanThis project aims to explore whether and (if so) how individuals affected by climate change experience and perceive empowerment through digital crowdsourcing campaigns provided by organisational actors. Unequal inclusion in climate change debates and decision-making processes remains a significant global problem, perpetuating local and global structural inequalities in experiencing and addressing climate change . In response to this issue, various international non-governmental civil society (INGO) and governmental organisations (IGO) have initiated crowdsourcing campaigns to involve citizens around the globe. Such campaigns provide open calls through digital platforms with varying aims around participation, ranging from individual submissions of climate change data (e.g. photo evidence or disaster tracking) to group submissions of innovative solutions to specific environmental problems. As such, these campaigns aim to provide more participatory processes. They should therefore, in theory, empower individuals through more participatory digitally-enabled processes (= digital empowerment), a notion and hypothesis this project aims to test through the lens of climate justice. It will do so through qualitative research including short-term ethnographic fieldwork with the WWF & UNFCCC; long-term digital observation (and where possible participation, e.g. in group tasks or data submission) in crowdsourcing initiatives by the UNFCCC (= 3 initiatives, drawn from COP27 crowdsourcing actions as part of the Action Hubs) and WWF (= 3 initiatives, “Climate Crowd”; “One City Planet Challenge”); and six to ten focus groups (FG; 1-2 FG in each chosen location) with users of these platforms.

Keywords: digital empowerment,climate justice,digital participation,crowdsourcing,climate change,global south
CessOmics, using cesspits to assess past population interactions and the evolution of microbiomes and viromes (CessOmics)

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: Social Sciences and Humanities
Countries involved: Denmark
Call: Individual Fellowships (H2020-MSCA-IF-2020, 2020)
Start date: 2021-05-01
End date: 2024-01-20
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 219312.0
EU funding (EUR): 219312.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Trillions of microorganisms, including bacteria and viruses, inhabit the human intestinal tract. This community, known as the gut microbiome and virome, profoundly impacts essential biological functions such as metabolism, immunity and behavior, and provides biological adaptations that we did not evolve on our own. While our microbial partners and their viruses have co-speciated with humans over millions of years, most of our knowledge comes from microbiome studies conducted on urban industrialized populations, while viruses have so far been the forgotten siblings of the microbiome family. How much has this gastrointestinal community diverged from its ancestral state? What was the impact of population migrations, and other critical historical transitions into our gut microbiome and virome? Archaeological materials such as mummified tissues, coprolites and dental calculus have the potential to shed light on our shared evolutionary journey, but not at the scale and resolution of historical cesspits, the focus of CessOmics. Cesspits are common, well-preserved features in archaeological sites that preserve everything from microfossils to the eggs of gut parasites. However, they have historically been overlooked as rich sources of molecular information. By analyzing the faecal lipids, bacterial and viral DNA from these historical cesspits, CessOmics will dive deep into the complex microbiome and virome preserved in cesspit sediments to illuminate the migrations and interactions of communities, examining their evolving gut microbiome and virome. By combining multiple molecular records that encompass the bacterial and viral fractions, we stand on the edge of a potential breakthrough in our ability to explore the evolution of the human gut community.

Keywords: microbiome,virome,phages,cesspits,lipids,impact,industrialization,globalization
Ultrahigh-throughput protein evolution for polyethylene biodegradation (UTPE PEB)

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-2019, 2019)
Start date: 2020-10-01
End date: 2023-03-15
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 224933.76
EU funding (EUR): 224933.76
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The build-up of plastic pollution is one of the most pressing environmental concerns. Polyethylene (PE), the most abundantly produced plastic polymer, can persist in nature for over a century. The microbial biodegradation of PE that has been observed is slow and inefficient. So far no effort has been undertaken to improve the efficiency of enzymes involved in the biodegradation of PE through directed protein evolution. Standard assays for measuring degradation rates are not sufficiently high-throughput to cover the sequence space required. I propose to use state-of-the-art protein evolution technology to overcome this problem in two ways. First, an ultrahigh-throughput microfluidics based approach, that can associate a given genotype with its phenotype in picoliter sized water-in-oil droplets, will be used to isolate the desired genotypes from a random mutagenesis library. Second, a novel assay for measuring polymer concentration within each droplet based on differential light scattering as the polymer is degraded will assay the PE degradation rate for a given enzyme. These techniques were developed in the research group of the proposed host, Dr. Hollfelder in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Cambridge. Using these techniques, I will functionally express and evolutionarily optimise a range of PE degrading enzymes in genetically tractable host strains, creating a chassis to investigate the potential of microbial biodegradation as a solution to plastic waste. Secondments at the EBI, UCL and the SME Drop-Tech will convey practical skills in bioinformatics screens and droplet formation. The host group’s experience in enzyme biotechnology and directed protein evolution as well as its extensive modern facilities for microfluidics, next generation sequencing and flow cytometry will synergize with my personal research experience in synthetic, molecular and microbiology to find a multidisciplinary solution to the growing problem of plastic degradation.

Keywords: synthetic biology