Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Machine learning-aided multiscale design of porous materials tailored to application-specific, hydro-mechanical performance requirements (PorMatDesign)

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: Information Science and Engineering
Countries involved: Luxembourg,France
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2022 (HORIZON-MSCA-2022-PF-01, 2022)
Start date: 2023-10-01
End date: 2025-09-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 191760.0
EU funding (EUR): 191760.0
Participants: 2
Project status: SIGNED

Through continuous interaction between computational fluid dynamics, mechanics of solids, material engineering, and machine learning, with my host, I will develop a novel and computationally efficient method, implemented in open-source software, for the multi-scale design of engineered porous materials (EPMs) that meet user-specified hydro-mechanical functional requirements. This computer-aided approach will accelerate the discovery of EPMs and shorten the time for technology development, and is aimed at EPM design for additive Manufacturing (i.e. 3D-printing). The basic notion of the proposed approach is: (1) to employ a dimensionality reduction techniques to obtain a low-dimensional proxy for the high-dimensional problem of characterizing a porous micro-structure, (2) to develop physics-informed neural networks (PINNs) for scale-specific hydro-mechanical simulation of porous media at the micro (pore) scale, the meso (pore-network) scale, and the macro (Darcy) scale, (3) to employ a physics-based coupling mechanism for scale-specific PINNs, allowing them to form a chain of neural networks for hydro-mechanical structure-property-performance (S-P-P) linkage, and (4) to incorporate a topology optimization algorithm for the multi-scale design of porous media. The focus is on fluid-saturated, poroelastic materials, with special emphasis on biomedical applications that require a defined porous structure, such as meniscus implants and bone scaffolds. I will work on the project at the University of Luxembourg (host institute), in collaboration with the University of Strasbourg (secondment institute).

Keywords: porous materials additive manufacturing hydromechanical simulation multi scale physics informed neural networks optimization
Limited proteolysis mechanisms in plants for selective protein translation to improve heat tolerance (PLANTEX)

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: Greece
Call: ERC CONSOLIDATOR GRANTS (ERC-2023-COG, 2023)
Start date: 2024-06-01
End date: 2029-05-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1908375.0
EU funding (EUR): 1908375.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Heat waves threaten agriculture in the EU and worldwide. Exactly how we can protect our crops precisely and rapidly from heat is a lingering question with important implications for future food security. My aim with PLANTEX is to explore the potential of a rapid stress response that my lab has discovered and incorporate this knowledge into the design of new breeding strategies to improve crops. To bolster heat tolerance, I propose an innovative approach for the control of protein production networks by repurposing proteolytic pathways that control the dynamics of organelle-like assemblies known as condensates. My lab pioneers the study of proteolysis on the formation of condensates with unique properties that allow them to store functionally related proteins and RNAs. I dubbed the networks in these condensates that we discovered “coregulons”. These coregulons are responsible for undocumented rapid and synchronized stress responses, for example during heat, that depend on proteolysis. I hypothesize that the discovered condensates ensure an unappreciated rapid response to stress that is important for plant acclimation and that this knowledge can be exploited to engineer desirable traits in crops. In this project, I propose 1) to use our approaches to collect an extensive dataset of coregulons important for growth and environmental adaptation in the model organism Arabidopsis and the agricultural-relevant crop tomato, 2) to characterize novel mechanisms involving proteolysis of coregulons by refining and developing new approaches of protease-substrate capture, and 3) design and implement innovative strategies based on cutting-edge genetic approaches to improve the tolerance of tomato to heat waves. My objectives are ambitious but potentially game-changing by providing approaches that can help combat the escalating problem of food security and for our comprehension of how plants adapt to dynamic environments.

Keywords: proteolysis,proteases
Diamonds as the key to unravel the origin of Earth's water (INHERIT)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Earth System Science
Panel description: Physical geography, geo logy, geophysics, atmospheric sciences, oceanography, climatology, cryology, ecology, global environmental change, biogeochemical cycles, natural resources management
Countries involved: Italy
Call: ERC STARTING GRANTS (ERC-2021-STG, 2021)
Start date: 2023-01-01
End date: 2027-12-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1499758.0
EU funding (EUR): 1499758.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

The origin Earth's water is still an unsolved mystery in Earth Sciences. Yet, answering this question is paramount in order to validate planetary accretion models and determine the conditions for life-sustainable planets to form. Comparing Earth's original deuterium-to-hydrogen ratio (D/H) with those of Solar system objects such as meteorites, comets and the solar nebula can constrain on the provenance of water. However, while D/H is precisely determined for extra-terrestrial objects, the exact value for Earth is not known, due to the fact that Earth's primordial D/H got lost since its formation following surface and mantle geological processes. In fact, current estimates from mantle-derived lavas are challenged by the ability of these samples to retain pristine values, indicating the need for a pristine reservoir that remained unaffected over geological time to be found. Diamonds from the Earth's mantle may be key as they contain trace amounts of hydrogen and are inert and robust time capsules able to survive over several billion years. The overarching goal of this project is to determine Earth's primordial D/H by investigating the hydrogen content and isotopic composition of a unique set of worldwide, natural diamonds dating 3.5 to 0.09 billion years ago using newly-developed, high-precision and high-efficiency isotope ratio mass spectrometry. The isotopic data will be complemented by atomistic state-of-the-art ab initio simulations to understand the atomic and diffusion behaviour of hydrogen in natural diamonds. The new results will be fundamental to pinpoint Earth's water origin with long-term implications for understanding planet habitability. In a time where international space agencies are actively searching for potentially habitable planets and extra-terrestrial life, the new knowledge will be fundamental to understanding the geological and biological evolution of planets in our Solar System and beyond.

Keywords: water origin diamonds hydrogen isotopes earth s mantle habitability
Are big firm control and ownership structures crucially shaped by entwined fiscal policies? (CorpCONTROL-in-TAX)

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: Social Sciences and Humanities
Countries involved: Germany,United States
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2021 (HORIZON-MSCA-2021-PF-01, 2021)
Start date: 2023-09-01
End date: 2026-08-31
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 289407.84
EU funding (EUR): 289407.84
Participants: 4
Project status: SIGNED

CorpCONTROL-in-TAX aims to understand the role of taxation in explaining the development of widely dispersed share ownership in countries like the United Kingdom and the United States, in contrast to the persistence in many continental European states like Germany and Italy of corporate ownership structures characterized by controlling shareholders. The nature and structure of corporate ownership is a fundamental issue in comparative corporate governance, as the idea that ownership concentration limits economic growth and financial development is a central cornerstone of modern corporate finance. Indeed, family-owned listed companies, especially those that are heir-controlled firms, may produce downsides, not only in terms of lowering firm value and profitability, but also by curtailing the functioning of the market for corporate control and engender the extraction of private benefits by the controlling families to the detriment of the minority shareholders. Accordingly, CorpCONTROL-in-TAX investigates the role of taxation on corporate governance in a comparative setting, focusing on the British and American experience, on the one hand, and the German and Italian, on the other. To achieve its goals, the project plans to track, from the 1950s on, the evolution of corporate ownership structures in the United Kingdom, United States, Germany and Italy in connection with the concomitant changes in their tax frameworks. The purpose is to gauge whether different ownership structures - i.e., different frameworks of corporate ownership and control - in the U.K., U.S., Germany and Italy echo divergences in their tax systems, including as regards inheritance taxes, capital gain tax rates and income taxes. Therefore, CorpCONTROL-in-TAX's wide scope considers issues that affect not just one but several countries in Europe. This study does also have special importance for those EU member states where low productivity-related issues are at the forefront of policy debates.

Keywords: corporate governance corporate ownership structure concentrated family ownership tax policy income taxation capital gain taxes inheritance taxes
Dissecting the cancer epigenome – fundamental lessons from developmental biology (CancerEpigenome)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Advanced grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Integrative B iology : from Genes and Genomes to S ystems
Panel description: For all organis ms: Genetics, epigenetics, genomics  and other ‘omics studies , bioinformatics, systems biology , genetic diseases , gene editing, innovative methods and modelling,  ‘omics for personalised  medicine
Countries involved: Germany
Call: ERC ADVANCED GRANTS (ERC-2022-ADG, 2022)
Start date: 2024-01-01
End date: 2028-12-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2487500.0
EU funding (EUR): 2487500.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

DNA methylation is a tightly controlled mechanism that is essential for normal development and genome regulation. Although maintained in a highly static pattern across healthy tissues, DNA methylation is globally reprogrammed in nearly all malignant cancers, including gains at thousands of gene promoters and global loss across large domains. Substantial work from our group to characterize multiple primary tumor cohorts, transgenic animal models, and cancer cell lines finds that current experimental systems rarely, if ever, capture key features of the cancer epigenome. In contrast, our parallel efforts to understand epigenetic dynamics in development suggest an alternative, highly innovative hypothesis with a clear path for investigation. We find that the epigenetic alterations in cancer very closely mirror patterns that emerge in the early placenta, a tissue that naturally acquires invasive, immune suppressive, angiogenic, metabolically plastic and mutationally tolerant properties. Notably, this cancer-like epigenome depends on dynamic, previously undiscovered configurations of regulators that can be triggered without genetic mutation. With these insights, we have innovated tractable in vitro and in vivo platforms to dissect the biochemical, genetic, and physiological properties of this unique form of genome regulation as it supports developmental processes. We believe these efforts will demonstrate that the placenta and by extrapolation the cancer epigenome reflect a switch-like reprogramming event that can be studied at high resolution. In line with the ERC-ADG program’s goals, we will pursue ambitious and critical questions, resolve long-standing paradoxes and provide a complete model of epigenetic transformation in development with direct disease implications. Our world-class interdisciplinary team, extensive preliminary data, experimental design and proven track-record will enable us to turn this grant into high-impact and translationally relevant discoveries.

Keywords: placental biology,extra embryonic lineages,dna methylation,cancer
Quantum-Optic Silicon as a Commodity: Extending the Trust Continuum till the Edge of ICT Networks (QOSiLICIOUS)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Innovative Europe
Programme: The European Innovation Council (EIC)
Theme: EIC Pathfinder
Destination: Open to supporting projects in all areas of science, technology,...
Action type: EIC actions
Countries involved: Austria,Germany,Israel,United Kingdom
Call: EIC Pathfinder Open (HORIZON-EIC-2024-PATHFINDEROPEN-01, 2024)
Start date: 2025-02-01
End date: 2029-01-31
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 3481857.25
EU funding (EUR): 3481857.25
Participants: 4
Project status: SIGNED

The rapid rise of quantum computation has raised concerns about conventional encryption methods. In response to this emerging threat, quantum key distribution (QKD) offers an information-theoretically secure key exchange. However, its complexity currently hinders its widespread adoption. QOSiLICIOUS introduces a disruptive “commodity” approach, integrating every element of quantum random number generation (QRNG) and QKD monolithically on silicon. This results in ultra-compact implementations with clear photonic/microelectronic co-integration strategy and excellent cost credentials allowing us to address new QKD markets. A pixel-size (0.01 mm²) QRNG will be realized in 0.18-µm CMOS, including a multi-dot silicon light emitting diode surrounded by a ring-shaped single-photon avalanche detector (SPAD) with co-integrated active quenching. Its true random numbers will feed a QKD transmitter developed on a silicon-photonic BiCMOS platform on a footprint of no more than 1 mm². Simplicity is ensured through a novel GeSi light emitter sourcing a BB84 polarization state encoder. This yields an all-silicon solution free from the burden of complex and costly III-V / silicon hetero-integration. The efforts on QOSiLICIOUS’ QKD transmitter are complemented by surface-normal GeSi SPAD technology for 1550-nm operation at detection efficiencies of 50% under Peltier cooling. The GeSi SPAD will be transferred to the waveguide-based silicon-photonic platform to further yield an integrated QKD receiver including BB84 state analysis. The applicability of QOSiLICIOUS’ technology to commodity segments will be evaluated in techno-economic challenging scenarios (i) intra-datacenter interconnects, (ii) access and 6G networks and (iii) mobile applications with a close-proximity free-space optical key exchange. Performance evaluation activities will target secure-key generation that enables the encryption of co-existing classical data traffic through fast AES key renewal.

Keywords: silicon photonics,quantum key distribution,quantum random number generator,single photon detector
Immune-stromal crosstalk in inflammation and fibrosis: Exploiting the spatiotemporal dynamics of the OSM-OSMR axis in inflammatory bowel disease to develop novel antifibrotic therapies (iMOTIONS)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Immunity, Infection and I mmunotherapy
Panel description: The immune system , related disorders  and their mechanisms , biology of infectious agents and infection, biological basis of prevention and treatment of infectious diseases , innovative imm unological tools and approaches , including  therapies
Countries involved: Germany
Call: ERC STARTING GRANTS (ERC-2022-STG, 2022)
Start date: 2023-09-01
End date: 2028-08-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1499816.0
EU funding (EUR): 1499816.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Intestinal fibrosis is a common and serious complication of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). While intestinal inflammation can be treated pharmacologically based on our current understanding of the underlying pathogenesis, little is known about the mechanisms driving fibrogenesis. Thus no approved therapies exist for intestinal fibrosis. While stromal cells lie at the heart of fibrogenesis, our knowledge of how immune-derived signals instruct aberrant tissue repair and fibrosis is limited. We recently highlighted that the immune-stromal cell axis is a crucial component of IBD pathogenesis. Our research discovered that the IL-6 family cytokine oncostatin-M (OSM) plays a central role in immune-stromal crosstalk in human IBD, and drives pro-inflammatory responses in patients with refractory disease. Genetic deletion of OSM significantly reduced acute intestinal inflammation. Furthermore, our current findings suggest that OSM is required for intestinal remodeling and the regulation of collagen homeostasis by controlling immune cell recruitment. Thus, the OSM-OSMR axis serves as a rheostat for tissue inflammation and repair. We will investigate how OSM modulates intestinal fibrosis and identify upstream and downstream signaling events controlling intestinal fibrosis. I will use (i) newly generated reporter and conditional knock-out mice, (ii) contemporary mouse models of intestinal inflammation and fibrosis, (iii) primary human tissue samples from carefully clinically annotated IBD patients with intestinal fibrosis, and (iv) cutting-edge technologies including single-cell sequencing and imaging mass cytometry to dissect the crosstalk between the immune system and stromal cells driving intestinal fibrosis. This project will deepen our understanding of the intestinal aberrant tissue repair mechanisms acting in IBD and other fibrotic diseases, define novel biomarkers to identify patients at risk of fibrosis and provide the means to prevent and treat fibrotic disease.

Keywords: intestinal inflammation,mucosal immunology,fibrosis,stromal cells,immune cells,cytokines
Greenhouse Gas sensors based on Surface Plasmon Resonance devices (GasSPR)

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: Information Science and Engineering
Countries involved: Spain
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2024 (HORIZON-MSCA-2024-PF-01, 2024)
Start date: 2026-02-01
End date: 2028-01-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 209914.56
EU funding (EUR): 209914.56
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are one of the actual major threats of the humanity. These emissions need to be reduced and are monitored by reference sensors’ systems, which are highly sensitive and selective, costly, complex and require specific installation conditions. Due to these limitations, only few of these systems are installed. To complement them and provide high spatial resolution gas sensor maps, the deployment of a large number of sensors is required. This can be achieved thanks to Internet of Things (IoT), but which poses stringent conditions of low power consumption and miniaturisation. The GasSPR project aims at developing advanced optical gas sensing devices suitable for IoT. These innovative sensors will be based on the combination of Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) sensing principle with Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) as the gas absorbent material. Three different configurations will be studied: planar grating-coupled (GC-SPR), peeled optical fibre (OF-SPR) and fibre Bragg gratings (FBG-SPR) SPR sensors, on top of which various MOFs as absorbing materials will be deposited to achieve, simultaneously, the highest GHG adsorption and the largest refractive index variation. In this way, we aim at the highest sensitivity of these devices. The goal is to detect, at least, one of the 3 main GHGs, namely CO2, CH4, and N2O, at a level below the atmospheric concentration. The proposed methodology involves interdisciplinary collaboration across various fields, including physics, chemistry, nanotechnology, electronic engineering, photonics and information processing and has been carefully designed to optimise the bidirectional exchange of competences and skills between the host and the researcher and to boost the researchers’ carreer.

Keywords: greenhouse gases ghgs,gas sensors,surface plasmon resonance spr,metalorganic frameworks mofs,fibre optic,plasmonics,gratings,internet of things iot