Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
BIOFERLUDAN: COST-EFFECTIVE HUMIC FERTILIZERS TROUGH DIGESTATE TREATMENT AT INDUSTRIAL BIOGAS PLANT (BIOFERLUDAN)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Societal Challenges
Programme: Climate action, environment,  resource efficiency and raw materials
Action type: SME instrument
Countries involved: Spain
Call: Boosting the potential of small businesses for eco-innovation and a sustainable supply of raw materials (H2020-SMEINST-1-2014, 2014)
Start date: 2014-10-01
End date: 2015-03-31
Duration (months): 6.0
Total project cost (EUR): 71429.0
EU funding (EUR): 50000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Ludan Renewable Energy S.L. (LRE) is an engineering company with extensive experience in the business of biogas and treatment of bio-wastes. LRE main product is biogas compact plant, focus to small/medium energy projects (250-400 kW) where self-supply and waste management are the main targets. With BIOFERLUDAN project, LRE wants to take a step beyond responding new demands of cost-effective and reliable treatment for the digestate, the main by-product of these installations, developing an on-site recovery process to treat it obtaining high quality humic fertilizers. BIOFERLUDAN aims to implement in biogas plants a new process to obtain liquid fertilizers with high organic matter content, in form of humic substances, recovering them from the digestate. Based on previous R&D works done by LRE, a biogas plant which use BIOFERLUDAN process will produce a minimum of 60L of fertilizer per ton of digestate. The implementation of the new solution will mean around 450.000 €/year of potential incomes for each plant. Being a great business opportunity for LRE, the success of this approach relays on the fact that it will constitute a business and improvement opportunity for clients (biogas plants) as well as they will obtain outcomes such as: ─ Improved efficiency and productivity of the biogas plant recovering up to 55% and 25% of thermal and electrical energy surplus respectively produced ─ Diminution of operating cost reducing up to 50% volume of digestate managed (current digestate management cost reaches average annual expenditure of EUR 90,000 for each biogas plant) ─ Increased revenues by commercialisation of high quality fertilizers (450.000 €/year) ─ An estimated return period of the investment of 1,5 years BIOFERLUDAN success will come from the fact that THERE IS NOT any so competitive solution in the market and, what else, it will suppose an estimated annual turnover of 315 million € considering its implementation in at least 10% of the current 7000 EU biogas plants

Keywords: liquid fertilizer,digestate,biogas,humic
PD-MitoQUANT – A quantitative approach towards the characterisation of mitochondrial dysfunction in Parkinson's disease (PD-MitoQUANT)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Societal Challenges
Programme: Health, demographic change and wellbeing
Theme: Public-private partnerships
Destination: Innovative Medicines Initiative 2
Action type: Research and Innovation actions
Partnership: IMI2 (Art-187)
Countries involved: Israel,Germany,Italy,Germany,Ireland,Ireland,Belgium,France,Netherlands,Netherlands,United Kingdom,United Kingdom,Denmark
Call: Mitochondrial Dysfunction in Neurodegeneration (H2020-JTI-IMI2-2017-13-two-stage, 2017)
Start date: 2019-02-01
End date: 2022-07-31
Duration (months): 42.0
Total project cost (EUR): 6894315.0
EU funding (EUR): 4497935.0
Participants: 15
Project status: CLOSED

Mitochondrial dysfunction is implicated in Parkinson’s Disease (PD), but detailed understanding of the cause and effect in αSyn toxicity is lacking. Through provision of quantitative and systematic characterisation of mitochondrial dysfunction, PD-MitoQUANT will provide unprecedented understanding of the role of mitochondrial dysfunction in PD, identify and validate novel disease biomarkers, and propose innovative therapeutic targets that can be further progressed by the EFPIA partners. The consortium leverages multi-disciplinary expertise in the fields of αSyn biochemistry, iPSC-derived PD models, mitochondrial function and structural analysis, proteotoxicity, ER stress and UPR signaling, systems biology of mitochondrial function, and in vivo animal models. A key focus will be quantitative description and integrated analysis of mitochondrial function and its relation to proteotoxicity; representing a key panel of consortium partners Prehn [RCSI], Abramov [UCL], Corti [ICM] and Koopmann [RUMC] who also have assembled long–standing expertise in primary neuron culture, iPSC-derived neurons, PD in vivo models, proteostasis and ageing studies. These investigations will be supported by expert teams in iPSC-derived in vitro PD models and in vivo PD models from the academic partners (Hunot [ICM], Melki [CNRS], Di Monte [DZNE], Broccoli [CNR], SME [Mimetas] and EFPIA partners [Teva], [Lundbeck] and [UCB]. Through integrated in vitro, in silico and in vivo approaches, and supported computationally by SME [GENEXPLAIN], PD-MitoQUANT will perform thorough and unprecedented investigations of mitochondrial dysfunction. Finally, the consortium will initiate a European research platform of excellence investigating mitochondrial dysfunction in PD continuing beyond the project, further supported by [PUK]’s PD human tissue biobank. This will provide long-term and sustainable progress in the understanding of mitochondrial dysfunction in PD and towards clinical application.

Keywords: mitochondrial dysfunction,parkinson s disease
Meaning and Understanding in Human-centric AI (MUHAI)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: Future and Emerging Technologies (FET)
Theme: EIC Pathfinder
Destination: Emerging themes and communities
Action type: Research and Innovation actions
Countries involved: Italy,Germany,Belgium,Belgium,Belgium,Netherlands
Call: FET Proactive: emerging paradigms and communities (H2020-EIC-FETPROACT-2019, 2019)
Start date: 2020-10-01
End date: 2024-09-30
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 3996032.5
EU funding (EUR): 3996032.5
Participants: 7
Project status: SIGNED

The MUHAI project explores a radically new approach to push the envelope of human-centric AI technology to come to grips with meaning and understanding. Meanings are distinctions (categories) that are relevant for prediction, classification, communication, problem solving or other mental tasks. The meanings of an experience include what events, actors and entities play a role, the temporal, spatial and causal relations between events, intentions and motivations of the actors, and values that implicitly underly their behaviour. Understanding is the process of reconstructing these meanings and organizing them in terms of a coherent narrative that explains a new experience by linking it into a Personal Dynamic Memory. The MUHAI project will advance our ability to capture more of the rich and complex understanding that humans are capable of. It critically relies on enormous recent advances in technical AI components (such as deep learning networks) and semantic resources (such as knowledge graphs). In addition, the project will build novel components, such as: mental simulation of actions using gamified virtual environments and a powerful context mechanism to deal with the complexity of accessing, expanding and managing a very big dynamic memory (> 10-100 billion of facts). All these components will be assembled in a library called CANVAS, made available through the AI4EU AI-on-demand platform. The technical advances of the project will be developed and systematically tested in two challenging human-centric case studies emphasizing AI for the common good: (i) learning and using common sense every day knowledge on how to do things, in order to enhance well-being and empower common human activities, and (ii) learning about society through AI-supported analysis of historical sources and contemporary digital media streams, in order to understand social phenomena, specifically the origins and persistence of inequality in our society.

Keywords: human centric ai,semantic technologies,computational linguistics,embodied semantics,human robot interaction,computational social science
The Yoruba Print Culture: Networks and Modernities, 1852- Present (YORUBAPRINT)

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: Belgium,Netherlands
Call: ERC STARTING GRANTS (ERC-2020-STG, 2020)
Start date: 2021-07-01
End date: 2026-06-30
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1412451.0
EU funding (EUR): 1234793.99
Participants: 2
Project status: SIGNED

The print culture that Europe introduced to the world allowed other cultures to showcase their own modernity. Yoruba people use the words “olaju” (opening of the eye) and “ilosiwaju” (progress) to describe ideas around modernity. Both words have been in use before the arrival of the printing press in Africa, so therefore the idea of modernity for the Yoruba people did not emanate from the project of colonial modernity. There is no study yet that examined how networks of people with shared and sometimes diverged interests in journalism and literature managed to change the course of Yoruba and Nigerian history through the printing press. This project fills this research gap by looking at over 150 years of print culture in the Yoruba-speaking region of Nigeria, and its cross-cultural connections. It is important because of its articulation of the relationship between transcontinental print networks (between Lagos and London, for instance) and local contexts of production. It aims to uncover a robust history of West African engagements with modernity and the project can be a starting point for articulating Nigerian literary history. Working with local researchers and archivists, it will examine arguably the largest collection of rare samples ever undertaken by researchers working on print cultures in Nigeria. The methodologies will include network analysis, cultural criticism, media studies and political theory from a postcolonial perspective. Since these methodologies will produce data and literary theories - and display them on different platforms including social media and blogs - the final results will allow researchers and students from all over the world, to see the role that Yoruba print culture played in the World Republic of Letters. And as parts of the research materials are precarious and endangered, its final outcome will help to preserve knowledge about Yoruba modern history, which is currently in danger of being lost forever.

Keywords: yoruba culture,nigerian literature,african literature,yoruba cinema,yoruba religions,nigerian history
Biomass Low cost Advanced Zero Emission small-to-medium scale integrated gasifier-fuel cell combined heat and power plant (BLAZE)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Societal Challenges
Programme: Secure, clean and efficient energy
Theme: Low-cost, low-carbon energy supply
Action type: Research and Innovation actions
Countries involved: Italy,Italy,Italy,Italy,Italy,Italy,Belgium,Switzerland,France,Netherlands
Call: Developing solutions to reduce the cost and increase performance of renewable technologies (H2020-LC-SC3-2018-RES-TwoStages, 2018)
Start date: 2019-03-01
End date: 2023-05-31
Duration (months): 51.0
Total project cost (EUR): 4255615.0
EU funding (EUR): 4255615.0
Participants: 15
Project status: SIGNED

BLAZE aims at developing Low cost, Advanced and Zero Emission first-of-a-kind small-to-medium Biomass CHP. This aim is reached by developing bubbling fluidised bed technology integrating high temperature cleaning & conditioning system (IBFBG, that can convert heterogeneous feedstocks in a syngas with zero particulate matter and ultra-low tar and contaminants content), an integrated high temperature gas cleaning approach for HCl and H2S removal and an innovative key component for thermal and chemical integration of solid oxide fuel cell (efficient gas recirculation of the fuel cell anode exhaust to the gasification process via a steam-driven high speed micro-compressor using gas bearing technology). The technology is developed for a CHP capacity range from small (25-100 kWe) to medium (0.1-5 MWe) scale and is characterised by the widest fuel spectrum applicable (forest, agricultural, industrial and municipal waste also with high moisture, ash and contaminants content), high efficiencies (50% electrical versus the actual 20%), low investment (< 4 k€/kWe) and operation (≈ 0.05 €/kWh) costs as well as almost zero gaseous and PM emissions, projecting electricity production cost below 0.10 €/kWh . Gasification, gas cleaning & conditioning and fuel cells will be tested at lab scale and 25 kWe SOFC will be thermally and chemically integrated in 100 kWth IBFBG demonstrating the achievement of new milestones, increasing competitiveness of European industry, energy system reliability and flexibility and biomass plants social acceptance. Process simulations, computer aided design, tests, performance evaluation, risk and safety analysis as well as a technology assessment part covering techno-economic, environmental and overall impact assessments and market studies will be carried out together with a clear dissemination, exploitation and communication plan, that can count on the involvement of the main gasifier, gas conditioning and SOFC European companies and research centres.

Keywords: residual biomass,gasification,hot gas conditioning and cleaning,catalyst,sorbents,solid oxide fuel cells
Eocene and Cretaceous Oceanography: Disentangling the roles of geography and temperature on deep ocean circulation in past greenhouse climates (ECO)

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: France
Call: Individual Fellowships (H2020-MSCA-IF-2019, 2019)
Start date: 2020-12-01
End date: 2022-11-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 184707.84
EU funding (EUR): 184707.84
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Ocean circulation plays a dominant role in distributing heat over the planet and in providing oxygen for life in the deep sea. The thermohaline circulation will likely be affected by global warming, in particular the current areas of deep water formation at high latitudes. The thermal maxima of the Cretaceous (94 million years ago) and the Eocene (51 million years ago) are the two most important greenhouse climate phases of the last 100 million years and are seen as analogues to current climate change. For the Cretaceous and Eocene, mechanisms of deep-water formation and the role of ocean circulation on heat transport are poorly understood. This research aims to disentangle the controls of geography and temperature on deep circulation in past greenhouse worlds to identify ocean circulation dynamics fundamental to climates warmer than the present-day. This research has a three-fold approach: 1) To generate neodymium isotope signatures from a range of sites in the Southern Ocean to identify and track deep-water masses under two different circulation regimes: - the opening of gateways in the Eocene and - an episode of sudden warming in the mid-Cretaceous, which led to a widespread lack of oxygen in the world's oceans. 2) To identify the source regions of deep water formation, the geochemical signatures (neodymium isotopes, rare earth elements, mineralogy) of past seawater and detrital sediment contributions will be compared and contrasted to reconstructions of paleotopography. 3) To test scenarios of modelled ocean circulation in past greenhouse worlds, the Nd-isotope data will be integrated with coupled ocean-atmosphere climate models. The candidate will develop new competencies in geochemical techniques and climate modelling. Broadening her scientific skills base, whilst training transferable skills and reaching professional maturity, will ideally position the candidate to draw the disciplines of oceanography, sedimentology and climate modelling together.

Keywords: paleoceanography,climate change,geochemistry,climate modelling,ocean circulation
Development of Biomaterial-based Delivery Systems for Parkinson’s disease - an Integrated Pan-European Approach (BrainMatTrain)

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: Information Science and Engineering
Countries involved: Austria,Ireland,Ireland,Sweden,France,Netherlands,Denmark,United Kingdom
Call: Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Networks (ITN-ETN) (H2020-MSCA-ITN-2015, 2015)
Start date: 2016-01-01
End date: 2019-12-31
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 3995083.44
EU funding (EUR): 3995083.44
Participants: 8
Project status: CLOSED

BrainMatTrain focuses on a comprehensive understanding of Parkinson’s disease (PD), from basics to translation, fully supported by 8 full partners partner organisation (4 research institutions, 2 hospitals, 2 SMEs) and one partner organisation (SME specialist in device design). This ETN will educate and train 15 Earlty Stage Researchers (ESRs) in functioanlised biomaterials, materials science, functionlisation strategies, molecular biology, stem cell biology, in vitro model systems, in vivo neuroimaging, animal models and prototype design. Recruited ESRs will receive compulsory discipline-specific, generic and complementary transferable skills training. BrainMatTrain will develop multi-modal collagen reservoir scaffolds incorporating moieties targetitng the neuroinflammatoiry and neuroprotective phases of the underlying pathology of Parkinson’s disease. The researchers will undertake cross-disciplinary and intersectorial research projects, which when married together will deliver a novel, biomaterial-based, therapeutic device for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease. The research training programme is designed to ensure high-calibre graduates, best placed to secure employment in the private or public sector. Fellows will experience both private and public sector research and development environments through a considered secondment plan.

Keywords: functionalised biomaterials,tissue engineering,scaffolds
Spinning Active Matter (SpAM)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Advanced grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Condensed matter physics
Panel description: Structure, electronic properties, fluids, nanosciences, biological physics
Countries involved: France
Call: ERC ADVANCED GRANT (ERC-2020-ADG, 2020)
Start date: 2021-10-01
End date: 2026-09-30
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2443276.0
EU funding (EUR): 2443276.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Active-matter physics describes the mesmerizing dynamics of interacting motile bodies: from bird flocks and cell colonies, to collections of synthetic units independently driven far from equilibrium. Until now, however, all man-made realizations have been merely limited to 2D model systems. We will introduce a paradigm shift to upgrade the status of synthetic active matter from aesthetic 2D experiments to genuine 3D materials with unanticipated engineering applications. The essential goal is to construct the first generation three-dimensional active materials assembled from colloidal spinners, and to lay out the foundations of spinning active matter. I articulate my project around three complementary aims, all based on a unique experimental platform combining high-content microfluidics, smart colloidal design, optical tweezers, and high-speed confocal imaging: Aim 1. Spinner Interactions. We will introduce a versatile microfluidic platform to disentangle, tailor and elucidate the pair interactions which dictate the collective dynamics of colloidal spinners. Aim 2. Frustration-induced (dis)order. Building first on model experiments on spinning monolayers, we will explain how the intrinsic frustration of spinning motion at the microscopic scale shapes the macroscopic structure and flows of spinning matter. Aim 3. Spinner liquids, solids and liquid crystals. We will then be equipped to introduce the first generation of tree dimensionnal liquids, solids and liquid crystals assembled from synthetic active matter. Combining microfluidics and high-speed confocal imaging, we will establish their phase behavior and relate their inner microscopic dynamics to their macroscopic mechanical response.

Keywords: active matter physics,active colloids,nonequilibrium soft condensed matter
MicroREvolution - a high-throughput drop-based microfluidic platform for rapid screening of highly diverse antimicrobial peptide mutant libraries generated via directed evolution. (MicroREvolution)

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: Chemistry
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call: Individual Fellowships (H2020-MSCA-IF-2020, 2020)
Start date: 2021-10-01
End date: 2023-09-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 212933.76
EU funding (EUR): 212933.76
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

The extensive overuse of antibiotics in both the medicine and food industry resulted in the emergence of multidrug-resistant bacteria strains, putting at risk lives of millions of patients worldwide. Finding new antibiotics is a highly challenging and continuous process, as, eventually, bacteria develop resistance for specific antibiotic(s). Thus, there is an urgent need for alternative long-lasting antimicrobial agents. Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are a part of the innate host defence system that counteract microbial infections. AMPs exhibit a rapid antimicrobial activity covering both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. Due to this feature, AMPs are very appealing as potential pharmacological agents that could be used as an alternative for conventional antibiotics. Although many AMPs show high antibacterial activity, they also exhibit undesirable characteristics that prevent their widespread implementation in clinical use. In nature, development of biomolecules is driven by evolution, which can be mimicked in the laboratory using directed evolutionary processes to generate billions of variations of genetic sequences that encode myriad peptides or proteins some of which possess improved characteristics. One of the main experimental challenges in directed evolution studies is the relatively large size of the DNA-encoded libraries that must be screened. In the context of AMP evolution studies, an additional challenge is the time-consuming nature of the conventional assays used to assess the antimicrobial activity of AMPs. Here, I propose establishing MicroREvolution as a novel high-throughput microfluidics-based platform that will overcome limitations of current conventional assays and realise a novel concept, offering an exceptional possibility to rapidly explore the therapeutic potential of myriad laboratory-evolved AMPs in a time- and cost-effective manner.

Keywords: protein engineering,directed evolution,random mutagenesis,antibiotics,antimicrobial peptides,microfluidics,high throughput screening