Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Computational Intelligence for Multi-Source Remote Sensing Data Analytics (CALCHAS)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: Marie-Sklodowska-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Individual Fellowships (IF)-Global Fellowships
Action type: Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions
Panel: Information Science and Engineering
Countries involved: Greece,United States
Call: Individual Fellowships (H2020-MSCA-IF-2018, 2018)
Start date: 2019-11-01
End date: 2022-04-30
Duration (months): 30.0
Total project cost (EUR): 215492.16
EU funding (EUR): 215492.16
Participants: 2
Project status: CLOSED

Earth Observation (EO) is undergoing a radical transformation due to the massive volume of observations acquired by remote sensing and in-situ sensor networks. While satellites provide coarse-resolution, yet global-scale monitoring of environmental processes, in-situ sensor networks acquire high-accuracy localized measurements. Extracting information from spaceborne and ground based instruments requires innovative solutions which will allow the autonomous integration of diverse in nature and scale observations in order to provide high-quality geophysical parameter estimation. CALCHAS will demonstrate cutting edge technologies targeting three major factors towards the vision of fully automated multi-source EO data understanding, namely (i) the fusion of observations from different sources and modalities, (ii) the efficient aggregation of the sampling scales associated with spaceborne and in-situ measurements, and (iii) the analysis of time-series of dynamic observations. To that end, the paradigm-shifting signal processing and learning framework of Deep Learning will be utilized and extended through powerful mathematical tools and appropriate methodologies like supervised and generative learning, dramatically extending the current scope of single source data analysis. The developed framework will be employed for analyzing time-series of measurements from active and passive microwave and multispectral spaceborne imaging instruments (SMAP, SMOS and Sentinels), and in-situ sensor measurements, targeting the high-accuracy spatial and temporal resolution enhancement for observations and soil moisture estimation. The merits of the developed technology will be demonstrated in two intelligent water management case studies, namely optimized irrigation management and water pipeline leakage detection.

Keywords: multispectral imaging,microwave imaging,synthetic aperture radar,deep neural networks,data fusion,soil moisture estimation
Mechanisms of actomyosin-based contractility during cytokinesis (ACTOMYO)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Cellular, Developmental and Regenerative Biology
Panel description: Structure and function of the cell, cell-cell communication, embryogenesis, tissue differentiation, organogenesis, growth, development, evolution of development, organoids, stem cells, regeneration, therapeutic approaches
Countries involved: Portugal
Call: ERC Starting Grant (ERC-2014-STG, 2014)
Start date: 2015-07-01
End date: 2022-10-31
Duration (months): 88.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1499988.75
EU funding (EUR): 1499988.75
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Cytokinesis completes cell division by partitioning the contents of the mother cell to the two daughter cells. This process is accomplished through the assembly and constriction of a contractile ring, a complex actomyosin network that remains poorly understood on the molecular level. Research in cytokinesis has overwhelmingly focused on signaling mechanisms that dictate when and where the contractile ring is assembled. By contrast, the research I propose here addresses fundamental questions about the structural and functional properties of the contractile ring itself. We will use the nematode C. elegans to exploit the power of quantitative live imaging assays in an experimentally tractable metazoan organism. The early C. elegans embryo is uniquely suited to the study of the contractile ring, as cells dividing perpendicularly to the imaging plane provide a full end-on view of the contractile ring throughout constriction. This greatly facilitates accurate measurements of constriction kinetics, ring width and thickness, and levels as well as dynamics of fluorescently-tagged contractile ring components. Combining image-based assays with powerful molecular replacement technology for structure-function studies, we will 1) determine the contribution of branched and non-branched actin filament populations to contractile ring formation; 2) explore its ultra-structural organization in collaboration with a world expert in electron microcopy; 3) investigate how the contractile ring network is dynamically remodeled during constriction with the help of a novel laser microsurgery assay that has uncovered a remarkably robust ring repair mechanism; and 4) use a targeted RNAi screen and phenotype profiling to identify new components of actomyosin contractile networks. The results from this interdisciplinary project will significantly enhance our mechanistic understanding of cytokinesis and other cellular processes that involve actomyosin-based contractility.

Keywords: cytokinesis,c elegans,actin,myosin,formin,laser microsurgery
Low Energy X Ray Sterilizer – bringing OEM medical device sterilization in house and streamlining production (LEXR Sterilizer)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Industrial Leadership
Programme: Nanotechnologies, Advanced Materials, Advanced Manufacturing and Processing, and Biotechnology
Theme: Nanotechnologies
Action type: SME instrument
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call: Accelerating the uptake of nanotechnologies advanced materials or advanced manufacturing and processing technologies by SMEs (H2020-SMEINST-1-2016-2017, 2016)
Start date: 2017-02-01
End date: 2017-05-31
Duration (months): 4.0
Total project cost (EUR): 71429.0
EU funding (EUR): 50000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The sterilization of medical devices (such as implants, artificial joints, syringes, blood bags), as well as ‘tetrapacks’, food packaging, and even wine corks, is currently performed by third-parties. This adds time and costs to the final and critical part of the manufacturing process. Many new medical devices cannot be sterilized through radiation and can only be sterilized through chemical gas processes that results in harmful gases remaining in the packaging which can be harmful to end users of the products such as hospital staff. Moreover, medical device sterilization is currently not properly documented and controlled, often causing broad product recalls should a single product be found to be non-sterile. This adds further expense and delay due to the need to repeat the sterilization process. EnXray has developed an innovative sterilization machine that delivers high efficiency ionizing radiation, using low energy Xray’s to reach the Sterility Assurance Level, in an affordable manner enabling safe on-site and on-demand sterilization of medical devices. It can be installed on site at each production facility helping manufacturing companies to reduce production costs and times. Furthermore, the current inventory holding costs incurred by medical device manufacturing companies could be reduced substantially by EnXray’s technology thanks to the reliable sterilisation process. Within the overall project EnXray intend to optimise the commercial design according to medical partner requirements, demonstrate it for use in converyor processing, develop a better understanding of its impact on new plastic materials as well as fully establish the commercialisation strategy.

Keywords: sterilization,ionizing radiation,healthcare,medical devices
Bottom-up initiatives and anti-corruption technologies: how citizens use ICTs to fight corruption (BIT-ACT)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Institutions, Governance and Legal Systems
Panel description: Political science, international relations, law
Countries involved: Italy
Call: ERC Starting Grant (ERC-2018-STG, 2018)
Start date: 2019-07-01
End date: 2024-12-31
Duration (months): 66.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1489115.0
EU funding (EUR): 1489115.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Corruption is a global challenge that affects the lives of millions of citizens. In the past decade, Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have become indispensable tools in the fight to reduce corruption, especially when employed from the bottom-up by civil society organizations. While pioneering initiatives in this direction have flourished, to date we only have unsystematic and descriptive evidence regarding how they work and the associated consequences. With the objective of significantly advancing knowledge on this topic, BIT-ACT will open a new line of inquiry by investigating what I call anti-corruption technologies (ACTs) to: (1) assess how civil society organizations engage with ACTs to counter corruption, (2) appraise how ACTs enable intersections between bottom-up and top-down efforts against corruption, and (3) evaluate how ACTs blend with the transnational dimension in the struggle against corruption. Based on an interdisciplinary framework that combines corruption studies, science and technology studies and social movement studies, BIT-ACT will use the constructivist grounded theory method to analyze a combination of textual and visual data in a comparative and transnational research design including nine countries – Algeria, Bangladesh, Brazil, Estonia, India, Italy, Spain, Ukraine, Uruguay. BIT-ACT will be groundbreaking in three ways. At the theoretical level, it will expand the debate on anti-corruption providing grounded concepts and models to explain ACTs; at the empirical level, it will advance knowledge on how the usage of ACTs is changing the relationship between citizens and democratic institutions; at the methodological level, it will innovate in the use of grounded theory assessing a new standard for cross-national comparative grounded theory. Finally, BIT-ACT will produce sound and useful knowledge for the stakeholders involved in the fight against corruption worldwide by suggesting how to best employ ICTs from the bottom-up.

Keywords: corruption studies,social accountability,transnational civil society,qualitative methods
CARdiomyopathy in type 2 DIAbetes mellitus (CARDIATEAM)

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: Spain,Germany,Germany,Italy,Germany,Germany,Spain,Belgium,Switzerland,France,France,France,France,France,Netherlands,Netherlands,Netherlands,Netherlands,United Kingdom,United Kingdom,United Kingdom,Luxembourg
Call: Assessment of the uniqueness of diabetic cardiomyopathy relative to other forms of heart failure using unbiased pheno-mapping approaches (H2020-JTI-IMI2-2017-13-two-stage, 2017)
Start date: 2019-03-01
End date: 2024-02-29
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 12906216.57
EU funding (EUR): 6700000.0
Participants: 32
Project status: SIGNED

A rapidly evolving epidemic in Type 2 Diabetes (T2DM) is afflicting all ages, sexes and socioeconomic classes which includes serious comorbidities such as heart diseases. While ischaemic heart disease represents the major cause of death of T2DM patients, heart failure (80% of Heart Failure with preserved Ejection Fraction) is the second most common cardiovascular disease in T2DM patients. The aim of CARDIATEAM is to determine whether T2DM represents a central mechanism contributing to the pathogenesis and progression of a specific cardiomyopathy, called “diabetic cardiomyopathy” (DCM), assessing whether DCM is unique and distinct from the other forms of heart failure. To achieve this aim CARDIATEAM will build up a deeply phenotyped cohort, including an innovative imaging protocol, based on privileged access within the CARDIATEAM to already existing highly pertinent cohorts of diabetes and heart failure patients and control groups. Central biobanking of the cohort samples will allow detailed omics analysis that will feed together with the phenotype and imaging data into the central CARDIATEAM database. The data gathered will enable unsupervised machine-learning for clustering this heterogeneous population on phenotypic differences beyond diabetes. State-of-the-art big-data processing techniques and disease modeling will allow for controlling for common confounders such as BMI, smoking, age and blood pressure and will finally lead to the identification of new imaging and molecular biomarkers as well as understanding the taxonomy of the development and progression of DCM. Tailored preclinical models will be developed to explore the identified pathways revealing new therapeutic targets. The results of CARDIATEAM will be able to impact clinical care with the stratification of patients into risk groups of developing DCM, earlier diagnosis of DCM and an improvement of therapy thanks to better assessment of underlying pathophysiology and identification of new biomarkers.

Keywords: diabetic cardiomyopathy,diabetes,heart failure,omics,system biology,disease modeling,preserved ejection fraction
Methane related iron reduction processes in sediments: Hidden couplings and their significance for carbon and iron cycles (MERIR)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Consolidator grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Earth system science
Panel description: Physical geography, geology, geophysics, atmospheric sciences, oceanography, climatology, cryology, ecology, global environmental change, biogeochemical cycles, natural resources management
Countries involved: Israel
Call: ERC Consolidator Grant (ERC-2018-COG, 2018)
Start date: 2019-04-01
End date: 2024-03-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2000000.0
EU funding (EUR): 2000000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

About one-third of annual methane (CH4) emissions to the atmosphere originate from natural, nonanthropogenic sources. However, if all the naturally produced methane actually did reach the atmosphere, its levels would increase by an order of magnitude, dwarfing anthropogenic CO2 emissions. Fortunately, natural scavengers of this methane near its production zone limit its release. One of these scavengers, iron (Fe) oxide, can become a major sink for methane when sulfate concentrations are low. Methane-iron couplings in established sediments, however, are poorly understood. Specifically, significant iron oxide reduction has been observed in many aquatic sediments at depths well below its expected redox zone, where methane is produced by methanogenesis, often accompanied by decreases in methane concentrations. These observations challenge our understandings of iron-methane couplings and microbial players in the deep methanogenic zone and their impacts on the carbon, iron and other cycles. I aim in the proposed research to elucidate the unexplored mechanisms of methane-related iron reduction (MERIR) in the methanogenic zone of established sedimentary profiles under various environmental conditions and their impact on global biogeochemical cycles. I will resolve two striking yet unexplained phenomena: (1) the active involvement of aerobic methanotrophs in iron-coupled anaerobic oxidation of methane (AOM), and (2) the unusual reactivity of iron minerals toward reduction that is accompanied by intensive authigenic magnetite precipitation, and the effects of this mineralogy change on sedimentary magnetism. My expertise will enable me to achieve the objectives of this interdisciplinary proposed work using novel approaches from different fields. The project will likely lead to breakthroughs in our understanding of microbial survival strategies, reveal novel pathways for aerobic methanotrophs, and change our perspectives on iron mineral reactivities and sedimentary magnetism.

Keywords: sediment,methane,iron,sulfur,isotope,aom anaerobic oxidation of methane,redox,lipid,cryptic cycle,authigenic magnetite
Public private partnership to revolutionize delirium care in hospitals (DeltaScan)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Industrial Leadership
Action type: Innovation actions
Countries involved: Germany,Belgium,Netherlands,Netherlands
Call: Fast Track to Innovation (FTI) (H2020-EIC-FTI-2018-2020, 2018)
Start date: 2018-07-01
End date: 2021-06-30
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 4484637.5
EU funding (EUR): 2994425.0
Participants: 7
Project status: CLOSED

Prolira, a high-tech SME, has formed a consortium with European academic hospitals (in NL, B, G) and with Key Opinion Leaders who together are revolutionizing delirium care. This is necessary as delirium has severe consequences for patients (death, dementia, slower recovery), hospitals (organizational, time, costs), and society (costs ≈€173 billion). Every year, at least 3 million Europeans are affected by acute brain failure (delirium), especially hospitalized elderly and patients in ICU. And, the size of this problem will grow with our aging society. Delirium is an acute failure of the brain. Each day of delirium increases the risk of dementia or dying. Prolira has created a new vital sign monitor based on portable electroencephalography (EEG) technology: DeltaScan. Nurses can use it during bedside checks to scan brain activity for delirium. This simple step is as important as measuring blood pressure. Currently, nurses are only equipped with subjective checklists to detect delirium, leaving the majority of cases undetected, and untreated. With DeltaScan, delirium is detected more often and earlier, benefiting patients, hospitals, and society. Our medical consortium partners wish to implement DeltaScan into routine care, evaluating the effects and capturing the benefits. It is priceless to get financial support for this clinical testing, which is an absolute requirement for market acceptance. It is a straight road to becoming the Gold Standard in delirium detection and being included in clinical guidelines. EU H2020 FTI funding will allow us to quantify the concrete benefits of improved delirium care, allowing us access to the marketplace and allowing us to benefit society as soon as possible. As well, this funding will allow our international consortium to be well organized and ready for full-scale scale market launch. Prolira will grow substantially in the years directly after the project, creating meaningful jobs for hundreds of EU citizens.

Keywords: delirium,medical devices,technology,hospital care
Structural and cellular investigation of the regulation of ATP8B1/CDC50A, a human flippase important for the hepatic function (LivFlip)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: Marie-Sklodowska-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Individual Fellowships (IF)-Standard European Fellowships
Action type: Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions
Panel: Life Sciences
Countries involved: Denmark
Call: Individual Fellowships (H2020-MSCA-IF-2020, 2020)
Start date: 2021-03-01
End date: 2023-02-28
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 219312.0
EU funding (EUR): 219312.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Lipid flippases mediate transport of phospholipids from the exoplasmic leaflet to the cytosolic one, and their role is to establish and maintain phospholipid asymmetry in eukaryotic membranes. This asymmetry is tightly regulated and it is implicated in numerous cellular processes such as membrane trafficking, signaling, blood coagulation, apoptosis, cytokinesis, or cell fusion. The human genome encodes 14 different P4-ATPases, a subset of them being linked to pathologies such as mental retardation, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, cancer or liver disorders. As concerns the latter disease, it has been demonstrated that mutations of the human lipid flippase ATP8B1, are responsible for inherited intrahepatic cholestasis. The intrahepatic cholestasis affects mostly children and is characterized by pruritus, recurrent jaundice, growth failure and an evolutive liver degradation which requires transplantation before adulthood in most severe cases. Up to now, little is known about the function of ATP8B1 at the canalicular membrane and this is mainly due to the lack of consensus regarding its transport substrate and how its activity is regulated. Preliminary results indicate that ATP8B1 has a broader transport substrate specificity than previously reported in the literature and therefore its study will widen our understanding of the biochemical basis of lipid selectivity in lipid flippases. In addition, in the proposed project I aim at understanding how a disease related lipid flippase, ATP8B1, is regulated in vitro and in vivo and at understanding functional and structural consequences of identified mutations of ATP8B1 linked to the intrahepatic cholestasis.
Sequence and Function Relationships in Long Intervening Noncoding RNAs (lincSAFARI)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Integrative Biology: from Genes and Genomes to Systems
Panel description: Genetics, epigenetics, genomics and other ‘omics studies, bioinformatics, systems biology, genetic diseases, gene editing, innovative methods and modelling, ‘omics for personalised medicine
Countries involved: Israel
Call: ERC Starting Grant (ERC-2014-STG, 2014)
Start date: 2015-06-01
End date: 2020-05-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1500000.0
EU funding (EUR): 1500000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

It is now clear that many intergenic regions in eukaryotic genomes give rise to a range of processed and regulated transcripts that do not appear to code for functional proteins. A subset of these are long (>200 nt), capped and polyadenylated RNAs transcribed by RNA polymerase II and collectively called long intervening noncoding RNAs or lincRNAs. The recent estimates are that the human genome encodes >10,000 distinct lincRNAs, many of which show tissue-specific expression and are frequently dysregulated in human disease, including neurodegeneration. Given the growing number of lincRNAs implicated in human disease or required for proper development, fundamental questions that need to be addressed are: Which lincRNAs are functional? How is functional information encoded in the lincRNA sequence? Is this information interpreted in the context of the mature or the nascent RNA? What are the identities and functional roles of specific sequence domains within lincRNA genes? Our main hypothesis is that many lincRNA loci play key roles in gene regulation during cell differentiation, both via functionally important transcription events and post-transcriptionally, through the combined action of multiple short sequence domains. We will test this hypothesis using three complementary approaches – comparative genomics, detailed perturbations in mammalian cells followed by quantitative molecular phenotyping, and high-throughput screens for sequences able to carry out specific functions. We propose an interdisciplinary approach combining computational, molecular and stem cell biology. Our methodology will be scalable, allowing us to tackle completely uncharacterized long RNAs and eventually zoom in and study their individual bases. Upon successful accomplishment of the program, we will delineate modes of action of numerous lincRNAs, report sequence patches that are functionally important and understand how specific bases and structures act in concert to drive lincRNA function.

Keywords: noncoding rnas,comparative transcriptomics,cell identity,high throughput sequencing