Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Development of a novel servovalve concept for aircraft (DNSVCFA)

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: Information Science and Engineering
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call: Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF-EF) (H2020-MSCA-IF-2015, 2015)
Start date: 2017-09-01
End date: 2019-10-19
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 183454.8
EU funding (EUR): 183454.8
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The aim of this research project is to develop, in line with the Work Programme 2014-2015 of Horizon 2020 “Smart, green and integrated transport-mobility for growth”, a novel servovalve prototype for aerospace applications having lower complexity and number of parts, lower manufacturing costs and weight, and greater reliability and efficiency compared to common valve configurations. The fellow’s activity alongside the research group at the Centre for Power Transmission and Motion Control (University of Bath) will focus on the optimization of an existing valve prototype (which was recently conceived at the Centre) with the aim of allowing the safe and effective implementation of the new valve concept in aircraft. The research objectives will be reached thanks to the fellow’s unique expertise in optimization and computational fluiddynamic analysis applied to hydraulic valves and experimental testing of hydraulic components, combined with the host’s expertise in designing novel control techniques. The fellow, who will undertake high level training both at Bath and at the Aircraft Group of Moog Controls Ltd (5 month secondment), will utilize new approaches such as a reliable and flexible optimization process based on numerical models coupled to genetic algorithms; the technical solutions resulting from the numerical activity will be constructed through innovative manufacturing techniques, such as Additive Manufacturing, so as to allow the realization of non-conventional geometries. The outcomes of the latter phase will be tested experimentally on a hydraulic test bench. The new servovalve concept, which is expected to outperform commonly used configurations, has the potential to save costs and time across the whole life cycle of aircraft and to reduce power consumption and emissions of aircraft, with great impact on European economy and society.

Keywords: aircraft,servovalves,piezoelectric,actuator
KIOS Research and Innovation Centre of Excellence (KIOS CoE)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Spreading excellence and widening participation
Programme: Widening participation and spreading excellence
Theme: Improved access to Excellence
Action type: Specific Grant agreement
Countries involved: Cyprus,United Kingdom
Call: Teaming Phase 2 (H2020-WIDESPREAD-01-2016-2017-TeamingPhase2, 2016)
Start date: 2017-03-01
End date: 2025-02-28
Duration (months): 96.0
Total project cost (EUR): 15000000.0
EU funding (EUR): 15000000.0
Participants: 2
Project status: SIGNED

The proposed Teaming project aims to develop the KIOS Research and Innovation Centre of Excellence (KIOS CoE), for conducting multidisciplinary basic and applied research and innovation in the area of intelligent systems and networks with emphasis on monitoring, control, management and security of critical infrastructures. The proposal is a team effort between the University of Cyprus and Imperial College London, and builds upon a successful research unit, currently at the University of Cyprus. The strong background and individual experience of the two partners, combined with the synergy created by the Teaming project, provides a unique opportunity to establish a sustainable centre of excellence on the south-eastern frontier of Europe, which will stimulate the creation and growth of a regional industrial ecosystem with major economic and societal benefits. The proposed KIOS CoE will bring together a strong multidisciplinary team that covers all the required expertise to allow a holistic approach for addressing key research and technological challenges of critical infrastructures. The KIOS CoE will be established through five strategic pillars: (i) the growth of human resources and educational and training activities; (ii) the enhancement of the infrastructure through the KIOS Testbeds (iii) the creation of the KIOS Innovation Hub for technology transfer and entrepreneurship; (iv) development of an Open Knowledge framework to support and promote centre-wide reproducible research and open access; and (v) initiate an organisational transformation to manage the significant expansion of the KIOS CoE. The proposed KIOS CoE is strongly supported by the Government of Cyprus, the University of Cyprus, and Imperial College London with significant complementary funding. Moreover, there is substantial industrial support to join the KIOS Innovation Hub, which will contribute towards the long-term sustainability of the Centre.

Keywords: intelligent control,computational intelligence,fault diagnosis,control engineering,smart critical infrastructure
From FUnction-based TO MOdel-based automated probabilistic reasoning for DEep Learning (FUN2MODEL)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Advanced grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Computer science and informatics
Panel description: Informatics and information systems, computer science, scientific computing, intelligent systems
Countries involved: United Kingdom,United Kingdom
Call: ERC Advanced Grant (ERC-2018-ADG, 2018)
Start date: 2019-10-01
End date: 2025-09-30
Duration (months): 72.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2417891.5
EU funding (EUR): 2376236.36
Participants: 2
Project status: SIGNED

Machine learning is revolutionising computer science and AI. Much of its success is due to deep neural networks, which have demonstrated outstanding performance in perception tasks such as image classification. Solutions based on deep learning are now being deployed in real-world systems, from virtual personal assistants to self-driving cars. Unfortunately, the black-box nature and instability of deep neural networks is raising concerns about the readiness of this technology. Efforts to address robustness of deep learning are emerging, but are limited to simple properties and function-based perception tasks that learn data associations. While perception is an essential feature of an artificial agent, achieving beneficial collaboration between human and artificial agents requires models of autonomy, inference, decision making, control and coordination that significantly go beyond perception. To address this challenge, this project will capitalise on recent breakthroughs by the PI and develop a model-based, probabilistic reasoning framework for autonomous agents with cognitive aspects, which supports reasoning about their decisions, agent interactions and inferences that capture cognitive information, in presence of uncertainty and partial observability. The objectives are to develop novel probabilistic verification and synthesis techniques to guarantee safety, robustness and fairness for complex decisions based on machine learning, formulate a comprehensive, compositional game-based modelling framework for reasoning about systems of autonomous agents and their interactions, and evaluate the techniques on a variety of case studies. Addressing these challenges will require a fundamental shift towards Bayesian methods, and development of new, scalable, techniques, which differ from conventional probabilistic verification. If successful, the project will result in major advances in the quest towards provably robust and beneficial AI.

Keywords: deep learning,multi agent systems,probabilistic verification,bayesian inference,temporal logic,stochastic games,equilibria
Invariant Natural Killer T-cells in atherogenesis (Striking streaks)

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-2017, 2017)
Start date: 2018-09-01
End date: 2020-08-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 195454.8
EU funding (EUR): 195454.8
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Many survivors of childhood chronic disease struggle with early atherosclerosis later in life. As a physician-scientist I am inspired by their lifelong fight, and my research focuses on the etiology and treatment of early atherosclerosis. Here, I aim to unravel the role of invariant Natural Killer T-cells (iNKTs) in atherogenesis. iNKTs are unique for their restriction to lipid antigens presented on CD1d molecules, which underlies their pivotal role in lipid-driven disorders such as atherosclerosis. The exact role of iNKTs however remains elusive, as long as the involved plaque-associated lipid antigens have not been identified. Therefore, I developed CD1d-sortagging as a novel and innovative approach for lipid antigen identification. CD1d-sortagging employs bacterial sortase enzymes for site-specific cleavage and biotin labeling of CD1d-lipid antigen complexes, followed by isolation and mass spectrometry identification of the lipid antigens. At the Cardiovascular Immunology laboratory of Prof. Monaco at the Kennedy Institute of Oxford University, in a unique collaboration with renowned iNKT-glycolipid expert Prof. Cerundolo, I first aim to identify plaque-associated lipid antigens. CD1d-sortagging will be applied ex vivo in a human atheroma model, and in vivo in a CD1d1-sortagging mouse model for atherosclerosis. Upon identification, I secondly aim to unravel the impact of plaque-associated lipid antigens on iNKT cell phenotype and function using Mass Cytometry of plaque-resident immune cells and study the structural and functional aspects of plaque lipid-iNKT cell interaction. Finally, I will explore the therapeutic potential of plaque-associated lipid antigens to manipulate iNKT cell function and atherogenesis in a mouse model for atherosclerosis. Taken together, this proposal combines an innovative approach and excellent research setting with translational impact, an effective work plan, and maturation of a passionate physician-scientist.

Keywords: lipid antigens,natural killer t cells,atherosclerosis
Story Maker (Story Maker)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Industrial Leadership
Programme: Information and Communication Technologies
Action type: SME instrument
Countries involved: Belgium
Call: Open Disruptive Innovation Scheme (H2020-SMEINST-1-2016-2017, 2017)
Start date: 2017-06-01
End date: 2017-11-30
Duration (months): 6.0
Total project cost (EUR): 71429.0
EU funding (EUR): 50000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Wonder Media Productions (WMP) is a SME active in the development of 3D animation software and the production of related animated content. With its disruptive animation software technology called animation now, WMP has the ambition to change the way animation is being created, produced, expressed and used. Key differentiators compared to state-of-the-art 3D animation software suits are its real-time capabilities, its ease of use, and its cost efficiency. This makes it possible for untrained people to create their own stories using 3D animation. One highly interesting application for this animation technology is its use as a tool for education. Within the project Story Maker, WMP has the ambition to develop its tool into a project-based digital learning solution and to introduce it into the EU educational market. Within the project, WMP will achieve different developments envisaged for a commercially viable digital learning solution based on animation now. WMP will provide a proof of concept of the Story Maker educational tool and will extend its available libraries of animated content. Furthermore, WMP will study the economic feasibility of the project by a detailed market and competition analysis, identify key stakeholders and strategic potential partners, will perform an internal cost analysis and develop the business model, beside legal and regulatory framework studies. Story Maker project will address identified needs of schools, teachers and students and will impact about 10 million students in primary and secondary education in about 100.000 schools in Europe, with more than 450.000 teachers involved. The project will change the way teachers motivate children to learn with modern tools and will help children to become more creative and express themselves in a purposeful way using animation. The further development of the whole Story Maker digital learning solution based on the animation now software suite will be envisaged in a SME Instrument Phase 2 project.

Keywords: animation,creation,education,interaction,real time
Holographic control of visual circuits (HOLOVIS)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Advanced 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: France
Call: ERC Advanced Grant (ERC-2019-ADG, 2019)
Start date: 2020-10-01
End date: 2025-09-30
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2500000.0
EU funding (EUR): 2500000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

The aim of this research program is to produce novel all-optical technologies to explore brain functions at the mesoscopic scale with cellular resolution opening a new phase in optogenetics that I named circuit optogenetics. Revealing the neural codes supporting specific mammalian brain functions is a daunting task demanding to relate in vivo the individual activities of large numbers of neurons recorded jointly within collectives that form distinct nodes of a network and to perform precisely targeted and calibrated interventions in the spatiotemporal dynamics of neural circuits on the scale of naturalistic patterns of activity. Despite recent technical advances, these experiments remain out of reach because we lack a comprehensive approach for large-scale, multi-region, in depth, single cell and millisecond precise manipulation of neural circuits. HOLOVIS will tackle these limitations through the construction of an innovative paradigm combining optogenetics with cutting-edge technology of wave front shaping, compressed sensing, microendoscopy, wave-guide probes, laser developments and opsin engineering. My lab has pioneered the use of wave front shaping for neuroscience and developed in the past years a number of new optical methods, for patterned optogenetic neuronal stimulation. Here, we will push forward this technology and first demonstrate the performances of these breakthrough systems to reveal how inter, intra-laminar and cortical/sub-cortical wiring construct and refine visual orientation selectivity in mice. We will focus on the visual system of mice, whose input-output responses to controlled sensory stimulations have been characterized in decades of studies. However, we are persuaded that our approach can be used to reveal the connectivity rules that underlie specific patterns of activity of any neuronal circuit, thus defining the functional building blocks of distinct brain areas.

Keywords: optogenetics,multiphoton microscopy,holographic illumination,microendoscopy,wave front shaping,mice visual circuits
Gromov-Witten Theory: Mirror Symmetry, Birational Geometry, and the Classification of Fano Manifolds (GWT)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Consolidator grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Mathematics
Panel description: All areas of mathematics, pure and applied, plus mathematical foundations of computer science, mathematical physics and statistics
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call: ERC Consolidator Grant (ERC-2015-CoG, 2015)
Start date: 2016-10-01
End date: 2022-09-30
Duration (months): 72.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1999995.0
EU funding (EUR): 1999995.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The classification of Fano manifolds is a long-standing and important open problem. Fano manifolds are basic building blocks in geometry: they are `atomic pieces' of mathematical shapes. We will take a radically new approach to Fano classification, combining Mirror Symmetry (a circle of ideas which originated in string theory) with new methods in geometry and massively-parallel computational algebra. Our main geometric tool will be Gromov-Witten invariants. The Gromov-Witten invariants of a space X record the number of curves in X of a given genus and degree which meet a given collection of cycles in X; they have important applications in algebraic geometry, symplectic topology, and theoretical physics. We will develop powerful new methods for computing Gromov-Witten invariants, and will apply these methods to Fano classification and to questions in birational geometry.

Keywords: mirror symmetry,gromov witten invariants,fano manifolds,birational geometry,computational algebra
Towards Replacement of Critical Catalyst Materials by Improved Nanoparticle Control and Rational Design (CritCat)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Industrial Leadership
Programme: Nanotechnologies, Advanced Materials, Advanced Manufacturing and Processing, and Biotechnology
Theme: Advanced materials
Action type: Research and Innovation actions
Countries involved: Germany,Italy,Finland,Finland,Netherlands,United Kingdom,United Kingdom,United Kingdom,Portugal,United Kingdom
Call: Novel materials by design for substituting critical materials (H2020-NMP-2015-two-stage, 2015)
Start date: 2016-06-01
End date: 2019-05-31
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 4369292.5
EU funding (EUR): 4369292.5
Participants: 11
Project status: CLOSED

The CritCat proposal aims to provide solutions for the substitution of critical metals, especially rare platinum group metals (PGMs), used in heterogeneous and electrochemical catalysis. CritCat will explore the properties of ultra-small transition metal (TM) nanoparticles in order achieve optimal catalytic performance with earth-abundant materials. The emphasis will be on industrially-relevant chemical reactions and emerging energy conversion technologies in which PGMs play an instrumental role, particularly in the context of hydrogen and synthesis gas (syngas) fuels. The CritCat proposal includes all the aspects for rational catalyst design including novel catalyst synthesis, characterization, and performance testing by a range of academic and industry partners together with large-scale computational simulations of the relevant catalysts, substrates and model reactions using the latest computational methods. Particular attention is given to a strong feedback-loop mechanism where theory is an integral part of the experimental work packages. The experimental and theoretical data will be collected (descriptor database) and used for materials screening via machine learning techniques and new algorithms. The goal is to improve size, shape and surface structure control of the tailored nanoparticle catalysts via novel cluster/nanoparticle synthesis techniques that can produce samples of unrivalled quality. The research includes up-scaling of the size-selected catalyst nanoparticle samples up to macroscopic quantities, which will enable them to be included as basic technological components for realistic catalyst systems. The performance of the catalyst prototypes will be demonstrated for selected basic electrochemical reactions relevant to fuel cells and storage of renewable energy. The industrial partners bring their expertise in prototypes development and commercial deployment (TRL 3-4). The project involves cooperation with external research groups in USA and Japan.

Keywords: electrocatalysis,pgm replacement,transition metal nanoparticles,fuel cells,machine learning,materials screening,first principles simulations
Standardisation and Communication of Sustainable Energy Asset Evaluation Framework (SEAF)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Societal Challenges
Programme: Secure, clean and efficient energy
Theme: Market uptake of energy innovation
Action type: Coordination and support actions
Countries involved: Italy,Italy,Greece,Finland,United Kingdom,United Kingdom
Call: Improving the financeability and attractiveness of sustainable energy investments (H2020-EE-2015-3-MarketUptake, 2015)
Start date: 2016-02-01
End date: 2018-05-31
Duration (months): 28.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1706366.25
EU funding (EUR): 1706366.25
Participants: 6
Project status: CLOSED

The main barriers to finance of Sustainable Energy Assets (SEA) projects – namely energy efficiency, demand response, distributed renewable energy generation and electricity storage – are: 1) project valuation difficulties; 2) difficulties in project optimisation; 3) a communication gap between contractors and investors leading to a lack of trust. Today, protocols and tools exist for project valuation, but they are used separately, in different ways by different investors or contractors. Therefore, SEA projects are valuated on a one-off basis, without any standardisation. The SEAF project will significantly lower the entry barriers to finance for small to medium projects, through combining existing tools and protocols, namely Joule Assets’ market valuation tool, the risk assessment methodology from insurance company HSB and the Investor Confidence Project’s energy performance protocols. These three service tools will be integrated into an all-in-one, easy to use, single source valuation and risk assessment framework, which aims to: 1) Facilitate and support an intensive stakeholder engagement process; 2) Provide independent valuation and optimisation for SEA projects according to up-to-date energy market data; 3) Standardise energy efficiency valuation criteria for easy comparability with other similar projects; 4) Enable initial risk assessment at much lower cost and with less administrative effort; 5) Facilitate the matchmaking between investors and contractors; 6) Lay the foundation for robust exploitation. In addition to its demonstration with a large network of investors and contractors, SEAF seeks to enable investments of €10-15m and primary energy savings of 18-45 GWh/a over the course of its duration. Through its unique combination of services, SEAF will specifically target small projects, which would otherwise not get financed and it will have a disproportionately large impact on job creation, as reduced energy costs have a much stronger effect on SMEs.

Keywords: energy efficiency,demand response,distributed renewable energy generation,electricity storage,energy investment,energy performance contracting,esco