Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Reinforcing S&T Capacities of Two Emerging Research Centers for Natural and Industrial Pollutant Materials in Serbia and Slovenia (RESTCA-TERCE-NIPMSS)

Framework: FP7 — Capacities
Programme: Research Potential
Destination: Brokerage facility for partners search
Action type: Coordination and support actions
Countries involved: Serbia,Germany,Slovenia
Call:  (FP7-REGPOT-2007-3, 2007)
Start date: 2008-05-01
End date: 2011-04-30
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1057216.0
EU funding (EUR): 897431.6
Participants: 3
Project status: CLOSED

The project RESTCA-TERCE-NIPMSS is aimed at reinforcing the S&T potential of two emerging research centers, which are dealing with study of natural and industrial solid pollutants: (1) Mineralogy-Crystallography and Petrology-Geochemistry Departments of the Faculty of Mining and Geology, Serbia (UB-FMG) and Department of Geochemistry and Environmental Geology, Geological Survey of Slovenia (GeoZS) - by establishing strategic partnership among each other and with the Institute of Geosciences, Division of Mineralogy, University of Frankfurt, Germany (GUF). The major project objectives are: (i) strengthening the international co-operation networking and partnership between the UB-FMG, GUF and GeoZS and setting-up a brain-gain environment, (ii) improving material research standards at the UB-FMG by renewal and upgrade of the facilities, (iii) exploiting the RTD results of the GeoZS and UB-FMG and promoting them to national/regional centers of excellence, (iv) networking among the institutions from the European region of convergence and Western Balkan, (v) promoting the ideas of the EU 7th Framework Program, and (vi) counterbalancing the effects of ’brain drain’ in Serbia. These objectives are to be achieved within 36 months during which support and management actions organized in six Work Packages will be undertaken. These actions include (i) staff mobility in order to mobilize and reinforce the quality of human resources, (ii) purchase and renewal of the equipment, (iii) organization of lectures, short seminars and thematic workshops, (iv) opening two post-Doc positions, and (v) various dissemination and management activities. The RESTCA-TERCE-NIPMSS goals are to generate real scientific progress in the targeted research centers in Serbia and Slovenia without creating strong dependence. This is a step forward in harmonizing the scientific system in EU and in setting-up research-intensive clusters across Europe.

Keywords: crystallography,environment,geology,industrial waste,microanalyses,mineralogy
Wireless Sensor Networks and Remote Sensing - Foundation of a Modern Agricultural Infrastructure in the Region (AGROSENSE)

Framework: FP7 — Capacities
Programme: Research Potential
Destination: Brokerage facility for partners search
Action type: Coordination and support actions
Countries involved: Serbia,Italy,Slovenia
Call:  (FP7-REGPOT-2007-3, 2007)
Start date: 2008-05-01
End date: 2011-04-30
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1112620.18
EU funding (EUR): 975893.9
Participants: 6
Project status: CLOSED

Current trends in agricultural production are based on advanced technologies, including the extensive application of information technologies. In particular, the usage of wireless sensor networks (WSN) and remote sensing (RS) ensure timely in-field access to data and enable prompt reactions. Measures can be administered with more precision and effectiveness, thus providing higher food quality, environmental protection and considerable savings. In addition, a better understanding of underlying processes, and validation and adjustments of the used models can be achieved. Agriculture is one of the principal business affairs in WBC region. This especially holds for the Province of Vojvodina, a regional leader in which agriculture represents 40% of GDP. However, the use of IT support is missing, and its introduction in the regional agricultural infrastructure is of the highest importance. Networking and exchange of know-how within this project will lead to the reinforcement of the research potential and provide a substantial support for further development of modern agriculture in the region. Coordinating institution for the project is the Centre for Measurement Technologies in Precision Agriculture (MeTeP@), founded at the University of Novi Sad, the leading academic institution in Vojvodina. The consortium members for this project have been carefully chosen to initiate the coordination of research activities in the fields of WSN and RS applied to the precision agriculture. Through this project MeTeP@ will improve its research potential and human resources by networking with EU partners, which will lead to a long-term cooperation. MeTeP@ expects to broaden both its knowledge and technical basis regarding WSN and RS, and offer new employment possibilities for researchers in the future. As a final point, both the research community and the WBC agricultural system will benefit from the results of this cooperation.

Keywords: wireless sensor networks,remote sensing,precision agriculture,environmental protection
“Negotiating Modernity”: History of Modern Political Thought in East-Central Europe (NEGOTIATINGMODERNITY)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Cultures and cultural production
Countries involved: Bulgaria
Call:  (ERC-2007-StG, 2007)
Start date: 2008-04-01
End date: 2013-04-30
Duration (months): 61.0
Total project cost (EUR): 689579.0
EU funding (EUR): 689579.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The principal aim of the Project is an unprecedented synthetic volume on the history of modern political thought in East Central Europe. It is not meant to be compartmentalized according to national sub-chapters but based on a diachronic analysis especially sensitive to transnational discursive phenomena (e.g. the ideological traditions transcending national borders such as liberalism, socialism, conservatism, federalism), and being equally open to supra-national and sub-national (regional) frameworks, where different national projects were interacting. The project entails the task of “redescription” and conceptual transfer, i.e. finding a regional and trans-culturally acceptable set of analytical categories, as well as new knowledge-production – answering questions about the basic components of European political thought, formulated on the basis of a regional and trans-regional comparative analysis. It also necessitates the “trading” of concepts: both in the direction of inserting specific historical experiences and analytical categories into European circulation, and also testing the value of the interpretative models linked to such notions as “populism”. The project thus aims neither at a compendium of case-studies nor at a deductive Area Studies-type of approach that tends to eliminate differences to forge a general narrative. What it seeks to produce instead is a cross-cultural “synthesis”– the work of a compact team of multi-national composition, skilled in comparative research and drawing on the recent upsurge of transnational historiography. By shifting the reference point of historical thinking from the “West” to the cross-European experience with a special emphasis on East-Central Europe, in other words, the project seeks to rethink the history of the “negotiation of political modernity,” moving from “moral ethnocentrism” and oversimplification towards a more encompassing notion of what constitutes the European intellectual heritage.

Keywords: modernity,eastern europe,cultural transfer,political ideologies,conceptual history
Cell growth control by nutrients (NUTRITION)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Molecular and Structural Biology and Biochemistry
Countries involved: France
Call:  (ERC-2007-StG, 2007)
Start date: 2008-10-01
End date: 2012-09-30
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 831200.0
EU funding (EUR): 831200.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Mammalian Target Of Rapamycin (mTOR) is an evolutionary conserved protein kinase that integrates signals from growth factors, nutrients and cellular energy status to regulate cell proliferation, survival, growth and metabolism. mTOR functions have been inferred so far by employing rapamycin, an inhibitor that has therapeutical uses as immunosuppressive and anti cancer agent. However rapamycin is not a general mTOR inhibitor because mTOR is part of at least two distinct multiprotein complexes, one of which is rapamycin insensitive. Thus genetic approaches are needed to study the full spectrum of mTOR functions on growth and metabolism. We analyse mouse lines carrying inactivating mutations in the mTOR signaling pathway. The muscle specific mTOR knockout mice show a dramatic phenotype, as they develop a severe muscular dystrophy providing an animal model of myopathy. These preliminary data indicate a novel link between mTOR signaling deregulation and the development of muscular dystrophy. In addition we have demonstrated that the inactivation of the mTOR substrate S6 kinase 1 (S6K1) is sufficient to trigger muscle atrophy. Our future research aims at identifying the causes of these dystrophic and atrophic phenotypes in mammalian tissues. In collaboration with the Medical Genetics department at the Necker Hospital we are setting up a functional screening of muscle samples from myopathic patients to search for mutations in the mTOR pathways. We will establish primary myoblast cultures from muscle biopsies and evaluate the activities of the distinct mTOR effectors. This rapid analysis should restrict the number of candidate alleles to be sequenced. We predict that defects in the mTOR pathway should underlie a broad range of orphan myopathy diseases, potentially opening new strategies for diagnosis and therapy of skeletal muscle pathologies. Finally we will use gain of function mutants and in vivo gene therapy to address the role of this pathway in cancer progression.

Keywords: cell growth,nutrition,growth factors,cancer,myopathy
Tracing Antimicrobial peptides and Pheromones in the Amphibian Skin (TAPAS)

Framework: FP7 — Ideas
Programme: European Research Council
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: Support for frontier research (ERC)
Panel: Neurosciences and neural disorders
Countries involved: Belgium
Call:  (ERC-2007-StG, 2007)
Start date: 2008-11-01
End date: 2013-10-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 900000.0
EU funding (EUR): 900000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Most studies on amphibian skin peptides have an explicit pharmacological focus, and the origin, diversity, and functional diversification of these molecules therefore remain poorly understood. Antimicrobial peptide research in amphibians has been restricted to relatively few closely related genera in a limited number of families. Furthermore, although behavioral tests indicate chemical communication during courtship in many amphibian species, only a single pheromone peptide has been characterized in anurans (frogs and toads), and only two in caudates (salamanders and newts). We propose an integration of transcriptome analyses, peptidome analyses, functional assays, and phylogenetic analyses to: 1. Identify and characterize novel antimicrobial and pheromone skin peptides in a representative of all amphibian families. 2. Study the evolution of these molecules by mapping diversity and function on well-supported phylogenies. 3. Determine the relative contribution of different genetic mechanisms to the rise of antimicrobial and pheromone peptide diversity (e.g. recruitment from genes with other functions, tandem duplications, gene conversion, ...). 4. Test the relative contributions of skin peptide evolution (ecological adaptation and/or sexual signal differentiation) in shaping species diversity in amphibian evolutionary radiations. The results of this project are expected to throw a new light on amphibian defense and chemical communication. Since (1) there is a correlation between resistance to lethal infection and synthesis of antimicrobial peptides by the host amphibian, and (2) because systems of chemical communication are especially vulnerable to disruption by anthropogenic change, this project is expected to form an important contribution in the struggle against amphibian decline.

Keywords: antimicrobial peptides,pheromones,amphibians
Acinar cell plasticity in the adult mouse pancreas (ACINPLAST)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: European Re-integration Grants
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: Belgium
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2007-2-2-ERG, 2007)
Start date: 2007-11-01
End date: 2009-10-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 30000.0
EU funding (EUR): 30000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Cellular metaplasia may occur by transdifferentiation of one mature cell type into another, sometimes via an intermediate state of dedifferentiation. This type of cellular plasticity seems to be found in adult pancreatic acinar cells. The loss of differentiation may turn the acinar cells in facultative stem cells in the adult pancreas. Both in regeneration of exocrine as well as endocrine tissue and in pancreatic disease states, this type of acinar-derived precursor cells has found to be implicated. Therefore, the different steps in acinar cell transdifferentiation and the signalling pathways and molecular mechanisms governing the process need to be investigated in depth. Before, we have developed an in vitro system to dissect different steps in acinar cell transdifferentiation starting from purified mouse acinar cells. This system permits to accurately evaluate changes in gene and protein expression during the different stages of acinar cell transdifferentiation, and when perturbing specific signalling mechanisms (using chemical inhibitors, RNA interference or using cells from genetically modified mice). Our study will be focused on Notch and Ras signalling events, and the role of caveolae as a higher hierarchical platform to integrate these signalling pathways. Results will be further validated in an in vivo experimental model of acino-to-ductal transdifferentiation, based on ligation of pancreatic ducts. We will also investigate a possible molecular switch of RBPs (recombining binding protein suppressor of hairless RBP-Jk and its paralogue RBP-L) and the genes targeted by it, when the cultured acinar cells convert into precursor-like cells. Knowledge on acinar cell plasticity can be used to prevent acinar cell de- and transdifferentiation in pancreatitis and pancreatic cancer, and can exploited for forced transdifferentiation towards endocrine beta-cells.

Keywords: gastroenterology,anticancer therapy,diabetology
ADVANCED CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE IN STRUCTURAL AND EARTHQUAKE ENGINEERING (ACES)

Framework: FP7 — Capacities
Programme: Research Potential
Destination: Unlocking and developing the Research Potential of research entities established in the EU�s Convergence regions and Outermost Regions
Action type: Coordination and support actions
Countries involved: Greece
Call:  (FP7-REGPOT-2007-1, 2007)
Start date: 2008-02-01
End date: 2012-01-31
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1233257.65
EU funding (EUR): 1099999.59
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Construction is the largest sector in the economy of Greece, while Structural and Earthquake Engineering are very important for the EU’s Convergence Region of Western Greece (capital: Patras), which has the highest seismicity in Europe and will see a surge in infrastructure rojects in 2008-20. The University of Patras is already of international renown in these fields, thanks to a combination of top quality faculty and very active laboratories. It wants to enhance its position and ensure continuity to its upcoming generation of senior faculty, by improving and modernising its laboratories and by networking with 7 top European RTD centres: the UK’s Building Research Establishment (EU’s largest fire testing facility), the TAMARIS Seismic Laboratory in CEA (FR) – top shaking table facility in the EU –, the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and Research (EMPA), the European Laboratory for Structural Assessment at the EU’s Joint Research Centre (largest seismic laboratory and hub of earthquake research in the EU), the Politecnico di Torino (renowned for its strength in bridge design), TU Delft and the Geophysical Laboratory at the Université J. Fourier in Grenoble. The workplan comprises secondments to and from the 7 networking partners, repatriating (at least 3) experienced researchers, extending the capacity of the Structures lab to complex dynamic testing, establishing a fire testing facility at the Structural Materials lab, enhancing the capacity for computational simulation of seismic motions in large basins, 2 international workshops in the vicinity of Patras (with technical tours of infrastructure projects), web-based real time access to laboratory experimentation (tele-presence), production and diffusion of high level RTD.

Keywords: structural engineering,earthquake engineering,construction,fire testing,en-eurocodes
Expose capacity of the Estonian Space Research and Technology through High Quality Partnership in Europe (ESTSPACE)

Framework: FP7 — Capacities
Programme: Research Potential
Destination: Unlocking and developing the Research Potential of research entities established in the EU�s Convergence regions and Outermost Regions
Action type: Coordination and support actions
Countries involved: Estonia
Call:  (FP7-REGPOT-2007-1, 2007)
Start date: 2008-03-01
End date: 2011-02-28
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1232260.0
EU funding (EUR): 1099686.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The main objective of the project is to create the necessary conditions for utilizing the existing and emerging research potential of Estonian scientific institutes in the field of space research and increase the level of international cooperation - support closer cooperation with the European Space Agency and facilitating the participation of Estonian scientists in the activities of the FP7. For achieving the above mentioned objectives the project has envisaged the following activities: • Building a sustainable cooperation network i) An Advisory Council of 9 members will be formed. The Council will advise TORC on the improvement and harmonization of its development strategy. ii) Short-term visits of 13 experienced researchers to TORC to engage TO in wider research networks • Contribution to the European space and atmospheric research, through partnership in the EU research networks and improved coordination in related activities between research institutions in Estonia i) TORC will initiate 2 project proposals to the forthcoming calls of FP7. As a result of networking activities, TORC will be included in at least into two FP7 project proposals as a partner. • Organising researchers’ mobility i) 19 experienced researchers will contribute to the scientific activities of TORC. Around 25 Estonian researchers and PhD students will visit European Centres of Excellence. ii) Twinning workgroups and collaboration schemes will be created with 8 different European research centres operating in similar activity areas. • Upgrading the technological base and research equipment of TORC to increase the capacity of Estonian researchers to participate in international cooperation projects. • Organising scientific conferences on space research/technology and disseminating research results. i) TORC staff will organise 1 medium scale conference, initiate 5 international R&D workshops, organise 2 summer schools and participate in 15 international conferences.

Keywords: r&d cooperation,capacity building,networking
REINFORCEMENT OF THE WBC RESEARCH CAPACITIES FOR FOOD QUALITY CHARACTERIZATION (CHROMLAB-ANTIOXIDANT)

Framework: FP7 — Capacities
Programme: Research Potential
Destination: Brokerage facility for partners search
Action type: Coordination and support actions
Countries involved: North Macedonia,Bulgaria,Spain,France,Serbia
Call:  (FP7-REGPOT-2007-3, 2007)
Start date: 2008-02-01
End date: 2011-01-31
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 712929.6
EU funding (EUR): 620000.0
Participants: 5
Project status: CLOSED

The trend of production and use of healthy food has focused the researchers’ attention on characterization of the phenolic profile of foods consumed in everyday diet. Fruits and fruit products are known to possess beneficial effects on health due to a wide variety of natural polyphenols and consequently a great antioxidant potential. Western Balkan Countries are predominantly agricultural with great potential for production of healthy food with authentic origin and specified health promoting composition. In order to ensure efficient and appropriate development of food production and food quality characterization in R. Macedonia and Serbia, according to EU standards and practice, a project for upgrading the research capacity in food quality control is proposed here. Along with the reinforcement of the research capacities for food characterization by obtaining suitable equipment (liquid chromatographs with appropriate detection systems), improvement of the human potential is foreseen by hiring young researchers and their training in the respective fields. With joint efforts of the researchers from R. Macedonia, Serbia and Bulgaria, on one side, and the renown EU research groups from Spain and France, on the other, methodology for characterization of antioxidant substances in fruits, juices and wines is going to be developed and applied. A regional network involved in research of various aspects of antioxidants in foods aimed towards providing the necessary knowledge, tools and methods for development of high quality, consumer-acceptable foods will be established. In that sense, the human and material resources from these institutions will be mobilised by obtaining modern equipment, exchange of know-how, training of research personnel in EU research centres, dissemination of the results and promotion of the new reinforced potential of the scientific community in the Western Balkan Countries for future high quality research incorporated in the European Research Area.

Keywords: research potential,food quality,antioxidants,phenolics,flavonoids,fruit,wine,liquid chromatography,mass spectrometry