Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Dissecting the biophysical mechanisms of deep brain stimulation using voltage fluorescence microscopy (OptoDBS)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting 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 – In humans and all other organisms
Countries involved: Netherlands
Call: ERC STARTING GRANTS (ERC-2023-STG, 2023)
Start date: 2024-01-01
End date: 2028-12-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1498729.75
EU funding (EUR): 1498729.75
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is a promising neuromodulation technique for the treatment of neurological and psychiatric diseases. DBS electrically stimulates brain tissue via implanted electrodes. However, the biophysical and therapeutic mechanisms underlying DBS remain largely unknown. While long-standing theories suggest that DBS suppresses neurons, subsequent studies have shown that DBS activates neurons via direct axonal excitation modulating membrane dynamics, information transfer, and network synchronization. Unfortunately, this conundrum has been difficult to resolve experimentally because of (1) the electrical interference occurring in electrode-based recordings and (2) the challenge of measuring cellular-level membrane voltage dynamics in the awake brain. In this proposal, I will overcome for the first time both key challenges by using a novel in-vivo voltage fluorescence optical technique that permits the direct recording of the membrane voltage from identified neurons in awake animals, free of electrical interference. I will combine voltage fluorescence microscopy and electrical stimulation in a mouse model of epilepsy to optically dissect the cellular mechanisms underlying therapeutic DBS for reducing seizures in the limbic system. This innovative and comprehensive approach will provide novel insights into the cellular and circuit processes occurring during DBS in the awake epileptic brain. This research program will provide an unprecedented opportunity to build a mechanistic framework of DBS and stimulation parameter selection with the ultimate goal of identifying more effective and targeted DBS protocols for human patients.

Keywords: deep brain stimulation,voltage imaging,epilepsy
Metabolic control of immune cell function during fungal infection (METAFUN)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Widening Participation and Strengthening the European Research Area
Programme: Widening participation and spreading excellence
Theme: Attracting and mobilising the best talents
Destination: Attracting and mobilising the best talents
Action type: Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions
Panel: Life Sciences
Countries involved: Portugal,Germany
Call: Fostering balanced brain circulation – ERA Fellowships (HORIZON-WIDERA-2022-TALENTS-04, 2022)
Start date: 2023-10-01
End date: 2025-09-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 156778.56
EU funding (EUR): 156778.56
Participants: 2
Project status: SIGNED

The high mortality rates and healthcare costs associated with severe fungal infections highlight the urgent need to unveil their pathogenetic mechanisms and develop more effective diagnosis and treatment measures. Innate immunity has a key role in host response to fungal infection, by mediating fungal recognition and elimination, and modulating adaptive immune responses. The long pentraxin PTX3 is a soluble pattern recognition receptor that is involved in the recognition and opsonisation of Aspergillus fumigatus. Metabolism is a central regulator of immune cell function. Phagocytosis of A. fumigatus conidia elicits enhanced glycolysis in macrophages and is essential for optimal antifungal effector functions. Preliminary data from the host lab indicate that PTX3 deficiency, by compromising the metabolic reprogramming of macrophages, impairs phagocytosis, but also their conidiacidal capacity upon infection. Nevertheless, little is known about the mechanistic bases linking the functional activity of PTX3 and immune cell metabolism in the pathogenesis of fungal infection. In METAFUN, we propose to (i) define the molecular and cellular mechanisms whereby PTX3 regulates immune cell metabolism, (ii) dissect the spatiotemporal contribution of PTX3 to intracellular mechanisms of fungal clearance, and (iii) evaluate the contribution of PTX3 to fungicidal mechanisms in a human disease-relevant context using lung-on-a-chip systems. This original and interdisciplinary project will reveal previously unanticipated functions of PTX3 in antifungal immunity and will lay the foundations for the identification of new diagnostic and therapeutic targets for fungal disease.

Keywords: pentraxin 3,macrophages,aspergillus fumigatus,lung on a chip,immunometabolism,immunogenetics
Engineering pollen-independent seed and fruit production in crops (NoSexSeed)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Consolidator grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Biotechnology and Biosystems E ngineering
Panel description: Biotechnology using all organisms , biotechnology for environment  and food applications, applied plant and animal sciences , bioengineering and synthetic biology , biomass and biofuels , biohazards
Countries involved: Germany
Call: ERC CONSOLIDATOR GRANTS (ERC-2024-COG, 2024)
Start date: 2025-04-01
End date: 2030-03-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1997188.0
EU funding (EUR): 1997188.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Seed development in most flowering plants is coupled to fertilization, which leads to the formation of two structures: the embryo, which forms the next generation; and the nourishing endosperm. Some plant species, however, can produce seeds without fertilization. This phenomenon is called apomixis and, although relatively infrequent, it occurs in several plant families. This type of asexual reproduction via seeds is highly desirable in agriculture: first, it would allow the fixation of hybrid vigour, by producing clonal progeny; second, it would allow seed and fruit production without pollen. This is particularly relevant when pollination is limited, for example under heat stress, to which pollen is extremely sensitive. In fact, due to global warming pollen failure is expected to significantly contribute to crop yield losses. Unfortunately, no major crops can do apomixis and its introduction via classical breeding is not possible. The engineering of apomictic traits into crops has thus seen limited success until recently: novel advances now allow the production of clonal progeny in rice and maize. However, these clonal systems are not pollen independent. Full apomixis requires engineering of three traits: apomeiosis, parthenogenesis, and autonomous endosperm. And while the first two can now be engineered to some degree, the latter is still a major challenge and, without it, a truly pollen-independent system is not possible. Thus, in this project I aim to uncover the mechanisms required for autonomous endosperm formation. For this we will resort to naturally occurring apomicts for gene discovery: dandelion and rockcress. We will then engineer the determinants of autonomous endosperm in tomato, which is the most important vegetable crop worldwide, and whose pollen is extremely sensitive to heat. With this, I aim to unlock the final puzzle piece for pollen-independent seed and fruit production, which would allow the deployment of full apomixis in agricultural systems.

Keywords: seed development,apomixis,polycomb,endosperm,dandelion,arabidopsis,boechera,tomato,prion domain,heterosis
GOLGITACs: Targeted Degradation of Golgi Apparatus residing Carbohydrate Processing Enzymes (SWEET DEGRADATION)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Synthetic Chemistry and Materials
Panel description: New materials and new synthetic approaches, structure -properties relations, solid state chemistry, molecular architecture, organic chemistry
Countries involved: Netherlands
Call: ERC STARTING GRANTS (ERC-2024-STG, 2024)
Start date: 2025-01-01
End date: 2029-12-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1500000.0
EU funding (EUR): 1500000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Oligosaccharides and glycoconjugates, a hugely diverse class of biomolecules, are closely associated with health and many diseases. Carbohydrate metabolism relies mainly on glycosidases and glycosyltransferases which are carbohydrate processing enzymes (CPEs) that break and create glycosidic bonds, respectively. Controlling their activities is vital for understanding pathological processes in, and developing therapeutics for glycan-related diseases. Recently, new targeted protein degradation (TPD) technologies, which disable disease-related proteins by degradation, have opened possibilities for proteins that are otherwise hard to inhibit. While TPD within the cytoplasm, cell membrane, and extracellular space can be achieved with current approaches, proteins in the Golgi apparatus can not be degraded by means of the current methods, yet it is a major cellular compartment where most CPEs reside. New TPD strategies targeting Golgi apparatus-resident proteins would be a major solution for CPE-related diseases with unmet medical needs. SWEET DEGRADATION aims to develop strategies that allow for the first time the degradation of proteins located in the Golgi apparatus, opening ways for a new therapeutic modality. The driving idea behind this proposal is that a molecule can be designed thatselect CPEs in the Golgi for targeted protein degradation. Such molecules, which I term GolgiTACs, will link a CPE to a Golgi transporter, either sortilin or cation-independent mannose-6-phosphate receptor (CI-M6PR), and shuttle CPEs to the lysosome for degradation. In aim 1, I will focus on developing the GolgiTAC technology whereas in aim 2, GolgiTACs will be exploited for targeted protein degradation of CPEs in disease models. In all, SWEET DEGRADATION will deliver a conceptually new general strategy to target Golgi proteins for degradation, thus providing new inroads to develop therapeutics for currently untreatable diseases.

Keywords: carbohydrate processing enzymes,glycosidases and glycosyltransferases,protein targeted degradation,golgi protein degraders,ci m6pr,sortilin,lysosomal degradation
Craft Revitalization Action for Futureproofing the Transition to Innovative Technologies for Sustainable Development (CRAFT-IT4SD)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness
Programme: Culture, creativity and inclusive society
Theme: Culture, creativity and inclusive society
Destination: Innovative Research on the European Cultural Heritage and the Cultural and Creative Industries
Action type: Research and Innovation actions
Countries involved: Denmark,Finland,Spain,Netherlands,Sweden,Romania,Germany
Call: Cultural and creative industries for a sustainable climate transition (HORIZON-CL2-2023-HERITAGE-01, 2023)
Start date: 2024-01-01
End date: 2026-12-31
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 3924757.99
EU funding (EUR): 3911959.99
Participants: 11
Project status: SIGNED

CRAFT-IT4SD CRAFT-IT4SD (Craft Revitalization Action for Future-proofing the Transition to Innovative Technologies for Sustainable Development) aims to activate the CCSI towards the green transition by building on the rich cultural heritage and strong creative traditions which underpin the European CCSI. It is the ambition of CRAFT-IT4SD to revitalize knowledge, practices and traditional techniques as shared cultural resources for sustainability as well as spillovers into a new, customer driven and sustainable creative economy, allowing for born-sustainable small and micro-sized enterprises to share climate impact data and flourish via an open source and open data platform. CRAFT-IT4SD explores cross-sectoral CCSI innovation through a new ecosystem approach and with four pilot clusters (DK, ES, FI, RO), where regional governance, public private partnerships, entrepreneurial living labs, learning communities, and consumer-engagement approaches support shared experimentation towards the green transition. CRAFT-IT4SD goes beyond the state of art by merging otherwise often siloed CCI sectors, to further articulate a holistic approach, bridging past, present and future design and production opportunities, in the sense that CRAFT-IT4SD - combines techniques, skills and materials associated with traditional crafts with emerging possibilities for integration with new digital technologies and data analytics processes and services; and - adopts a new ecosystem approach to facilitate co-creation between traditional craft stakeholders, the fashion industry, SMEs by designers, artisans, artists through immersive media technologies. CRAFT-IT4SD holds the ambition to replicate insights, learnings and tangible results leading to a CCSI driven green transition – informed by the EIT CLIMATE KIC and inspired by the New European Bauhaus – in other CCSI ecosystems and thus to contribute to the EIT Culture and Creativity KIC, across its Co-location Centers.

Keywords: ccsi,sustainable development,crafts,technologies,data value,cocreation,ecosystem
Mainstreaming Social-Ecological Sufficiency: Closing the sustainable consumption gap between societal demand and ecological limits (MaSES)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Consolidator grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Human Mobility, Environment, and Space
Panel description: Human geography, demography, health, susta inability science, territorial planning, spatial analysis
Countries involved: Germany
Call: ERC CONSOLIDATOR GRANTS (ERC-2022-COG, 2022)
Start date: 2023-05-01
End date: 2028-04-30
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1981765.0
EU funding (EUR): 1981765.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Mainstreaming Social-Ecological Sufficiency: Closing the sustainable consumption gap between societal demand and ecological limits Global patterns of production and consumption are fundamentally unsustainable, threatening key planetary boundaries—earth system processes vital for maintaining of ecological integrity and human well-being. Strategies for averting this ‘ecological overshoot’ have largely focused on ‘greening’ production by reducing the material intensity (efficiency), or the material throughput (consistency) of economic activity. However, neither of these approaches address what constitutes a sustainable scale of economic activity. Here, the novel notion of social-ecological sufficiency—a socially satisfactory standard of living within ecologically sustainable natural resource usage—represents a vital third (integrative) strategy for moving towards an economy within a 'safe operating space for humanity’. The overall aim of MaSES is to mainstream the notion of social-ecological sufficiency as a conceptual and empirical bridge between research on planetary boundaries and sustainable production and consumption, with far-reaching academic and societal implications for sustainable resource use. WP1 will synthesize disparate approaches to conceptualizing sufficiency and cement social-ecological sufficiency as a core idea in sustainability. WP2 will employ a global environmentally extended material and energy flow analysis to quantify key planetary boundaries (land-system change, biochemical flows, climate change and freshwater use) in terms of ‘ecologically sufficient’ levels of household consumption. WP3 will adapt methods from consensual deprivation assessments to identify ‘socially sufficient’ levels of household consumption across different social groups. WP4 will assess the feasibility of different strategies for closing the gap between ecologically ‘safe’ and socially ‘acceptable’ levels of household consumption. WP5 addresses project management.

Keywords: sufficiency,sustainability science,ecological limits,material flow analysis,household consumption,sustainable production and consumption,degrowth
Anger, Legitimised (ANGLE): Amplified anger and its rhetorics of legitimation in the 21st century (ANGLE)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Advanced grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: The Soci al World and Its Interactions
Panel description: Sociology, social psychology, education  sciences , communication  studies
Countries involved: Denmark,Czechia
Call: ERC ADVANCED GRANTS (ERC-2023-ADG, 2023)
Start date: 2025-01-01
End date: 2029-12-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2499769.0
EU funding (EUR): 2499769.0
Participants: 2
Project status: SIGNED

The world is an increasingly angry place. Fueled by economic turmoil, conflict, climate collapse and culture wars, outbursts of collective anger are visible online, on the streets, and in various political forums. These outpourings of visible, collective ire, what we call ‘amplified anger’, have been historically condemned in mainstream public discourse as anti-democratic, uncivil attacks on human co-existence. But for the people engaged in these acts of rage, anger is often seen as a fully legitimate, necessary response to injustice, oppression or crisis. There is an urgent need to study the sources and rhetorics of legitimation that allow this amplified anger to flourish, be voiced, and spread within and across contemporary communities. ANGLE (anger, legitimised) will study how communities that feel their anger has been delegitimised seek to perform, communicate and justify this volatile emotion. Composed of four interconnected work packages (Fury, Venom, Rage and Wrath), the project will explore gendered, postcolonial, post-conversion and neo- religious iterations of anger in specific cultural sites across the globe. It uses a novel two-fold methodology: fieldwork and participant observation to access and study the localised ‘anger worlds’ of particular communities; and textual analysis to study print and online spaces where discourses of amplified anger intermingle to create wider, transnational ‘anger arenas’. ANGLE’s analytical framework will provide critical empirical insights into the dynamics of global political action. Through the innovative concept of the ‘grammar of anger’, we will compare the legitimation, transmission and ethics of amplified anger across local and global political sites. We will advance EU’s research environment by consolidating empirically informed anger studies, building an international consortium of anger scholars, and creating a significant repertoire of knowledge on the economic, cultural and political impact in the 21st century.

Keywords: anger,legitimisation,world politics
Development of a fluorescence-based nanotool for early breast cancer diagnosis (NanoNIR)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Postdoctoral Fellowships
Action type: Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions
Panel: Chemistry
Countries involved: Spain,Germany
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2022 (HORIZON-MSCA-2022-PF-01, 2022)
Start date: 2024-09-01
End date: 2026-08-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 181152.96
EU funding (EUR): 181152.96
Participants: 3
Project status: SIGNED

Breast cancer is the most common cancer globally, accounting for 12% of all new annual cancer cases worldwide, according to the World Health Organization, and early detection is a key issue as survival improves when cancer is detected early. NanoNIR will develop a novel fluorescence-based nanotool for the detection and quantification of miR-99a-5p in liquid biopsy samples from breast cancer patients. The nanotool will consist of upconverting nanoparticles (UCNPs) decorated with aptamers and small gold nanoparticles (AuNPs). UCNPs are inorganic nanocrystals that convert near-infrared (NIR) light into shorter wavelength emissions and exhibit narrow emission bandwidths and large anti-Stokes shifts (λex = 980 nm, λem = 540, 655 nm). These photophysical properties make them excellent candidates for fluorescence biosensing allowing for effective sensing with diminished background noise in a complicated detection system. The AuNPs have a large extinction coefficient and a broad UV–Vis absorption band (500 – 580 nm) making them excellent fluorescence quenching agents. The combination of UCNPs (donors) with AuNPs (acceptors) linked through complementary aptamers will result in a fluorescence emission quenching of UCNPs at 540 nm. Following the detection of miR-99a-5p by its complementary aptamer sequence, AuNPs will be displaced from the UCNPs surface restoring the luminescence of UCNPs at 540 nm with an intensity-dependent to miRNA-9a-5p concentration allowing the detection of miR-99a-5p in real samples. Additionally, the luminescence signal at 655 nm could be used for the ratiometric measurements.

Keywords: upconverting nanoparticles,gold nanoparticles,near infrared,micrornas,breast cancer,ratiometric,fluorescence,sensor
Optimized Up-scaled Technology for next-generation solid OXide electrolysis (OUTFOX)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness
Programme: Climate, Energy and Mobility
Theme: Public-private partnerships
Destination: Clean Hydrogen
Action type: Research and Innovation actions
Partnership: CLEANH2 (JU-JTI)
Countries involved: Netherlands,Finland,Italy,Estonia,United Kingdom
Call: Scaling-up technologies for SOEL (HORIZON-JTI-CLEANH2-2022-1, 2022)
Start date: 2023-02-01
End date: 2027-01-31
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2925824.25
EU funding (EUR): 2925824.0
Participants: 9
Project status: SIGNED

The main aim of OUTFOX is to remove scale as limiting factor in the deployment of SOEL technologies, while proving their potential to become the preferred option for green hydrogen production. By combining experimental results up to 80 kW scales with identification of optimal cell and system designs, OUTFOX will prepare SOEL for industrial scale systems of 100+ MW with an LCOH as low as €2.7/kg hydrogen and applicability to mass manufacturing lines. The industrially-driven OUTFOX consortium will combine expertise on cell, stack and module development, manufacturing, and full system evaluation to advance the maturity of SOEL and contribute to the targets of the Clean Hydrogen JU SRIA. OUTFOX will achieve current densities of at least 0.85 A/cm2 through the use of cells with 25% less thickness than current high volume state-of-the-art, improving sustainability through reducing total materials requirements. Scale-up will be approached from two sides: (1) development and validation of cells with geometric areas up to 800 cm2 that are compatible with at-scale manufacturing techniques, and (2) validation of optimized design concepts with increased numbers of stacks per module. The partners will validate high current density operation with reference scale (144 cm2), industrial scale (>300 cm2) and next-generation cells (900 cm2) in single repeating units, short stacks of 15 cells, and 80 kW prototype systems, leading to more than 10,000 hours of SOEL operation. Two separate 80 kW testing campaigns with two different stack configurations and a total of more than 4000 operating hours, to be tested onsite at the Shell facilities in Amsterdam, will go beyond the scope of the call text to provide a comprehensive validation of the OUTFOX technology, thus providing key data for design of a full scale 100+ MW SOEL system, including the module configuration and all balance of plant requirements, and preparing the technology for a multi-MW demonstration following the project end

Keywords: solid oxide cell,scale up,manufacturing,stack design,module design,modeling