Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Sustainability Transition Assessment and Research of Bio-based Products (STAR-ProBio)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Societal Challenges
Programme: Food security, sustainable agriculture and forestry, marine and maritime and inland water research and the bioeconomy
Theme: Sustainable and competitive bio-based industries and supporting the development of a European bio-economy
Action type: Research and Innovation actions
Countries involved: Germany,Spain,Italy,Italy,Germany,Austria,Italy,Belgium,Greece,Poland,Sweden,Switzerland,Netherlands,United Kingdom
Call: Sustainability schemes for the bio-based economy (H2020-BB-2016-2, 2016)
Start date: 2017-05-01
End date: 2020-04-30
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 5306371.5
EU funding (EUR): 4983871.5
Participants: 15
Project status: CLOSED

STAR-ProBio constitutes a multidisciplinary and multi-actor collaborative project that will meet environmental, social and economic challenges, paving the way for a much-needed sustainability transition towards a bio-based economy. The overall objective of the project is to promote a more efficient and harmonized policy regulation framework, needed to promote the market-pull of bio-based products. This will be achieved by developing a fit-for-purpose sustainability scheme, including standards, labels and certifications for bio-based products. To this aim, an integral part of STAR-ProBio will be the adoption of life-cycle methodologies to assess the roll-out of bio-based products. Environmental assessment will be performed, through LCA, in a circular economy framework (with a focus on end-of-life analysis) looking at issues which emerge upstream and downstream the value chain. This will be complemented by a techno-economic assessment and by a social impact assessment conducted through stakeholder analysis, SLCA, surveys and field experiments. Indirect land use change issues (ILUC) will also be addressed from an environmental, economic and social perspective. Moreover, the analysis of selected case studies on (1) construction materials, (2) bio-based polymers, and (3) fine chemicals, will ensure that the approach is not too broad and theoretic, allowing the benchmarking against non bio-based products. Hence, STAR-ProBio will integrate scientific and engineering approaches with social sciences and humanities-based approaches in order to formulate guidelines for a common framework promoting the development of regulations and standards to support the adoption of business innovation models in the bio-based products sector.

Keywords: fit for purpose sustainability scheme,circular economy,end of life,indirect land use change
Word Measures in Groups and Random Cayley Graphs (WordMeasures)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Mathematics
Panel description: All areas of mathematics, pure and applied, plus mathematical foundations of computer science, mathematical physics and statistics
Countries involved: Israel
Call: ERC Starting Grant (ERC-2019-STG, 2019)
Start date: 2020-02-01
End date: 2026-01-31
Duration (months): 72.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1470875.0
EU funding (EUR): 1470875.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Recent years brought immense progress in the study of Cayley graphs of finite groups, with many new results concerning their expansion, diameter, girth etc. Yet, many central open questions remain. These questions, especially those concerning random Cayley graphs, are major motivation to this proposed research. Central in this project is the study of word measures in finite and compact groups. A word w in a free group F induces a measure on every finite or compact group G as follows: substitute every generator of F with an independent Haar-random element of G and evaluate the product defined by w to obtain a random element in G. The main goal here is to expose the invariants of the word w which control different aspects of these measures. The study of word measures, mostly by the PI and collaborators, has proven useful not only for analyzing random Cayley and Schreier graphs of G, but also for many questions revolving around free groups and their automorphism groups. Moreover, the study of word measures has exposed a deep and beautiful mathematical theory with surprising connections to objects in combinatorial and geometric group theory and in low dimensional topology. This theory is still in its infancy, with many beautiful open questions and intriguing challenges ahead. Another line of research revolves around a few irreducible representations of a finite group which control the spectral gap of Cayley graphs. The proof of Aldous' conjecture in 2010 showed that this happens more commonly than one could have naïvely guessed. There is additional evidence, some of which found by the PI and collaborators, that Aldous' conjecture is only the tip of the iceberg, especially for Cayley graphs of the symmetric group Sym(n). Our most optimistic conjectures here have extremely strong consequences for these Cayley graphs. We intend to use our progress in the above two directions in order to answer some intriguing open questions concerning Cayley and Schreier graphs.

Keywords: expander graphs,free groups,geometric group theory,random matrices
Micro-endoscopes for in-depth high-resolution optogenetics (ME-Optogen)

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: Information Science and Engineering
Countries involved: France
Call: Individual Fellowships (H2020-MSCA-IF-2016, 2016)
Start date: 2017-04-01
End date: 2019-03-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 173076.0
EU funding (EUR): 173076.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Understanding how the brain works is one of the grand scientific challenges of our times and constitutes a priority research line for the European Union. The study of the brain mechanisms that underlie fear learning and response is particularly relevant as it could provide the key to control anxiety disorders, with an associated high social and economic benefit for the European community. Recent studies indicate that specific areas of the amygdala, a structure located deep within the brain’s medial temporal lobe, are crucial for the generation of fear responses in mice. To gain more insight, it is now necessary to understand how individual neurons in these areas act and collaborate together to generate the appropriate response. Crucially, this requires the capability to observe and manipulate fear circuits in deep brain structures with single neuron resolution. However, reaching at the same time sufficient depth and high resolution represents a great experimental challenge. At present no technique exists that can enable such a study. The objective of the project is to overcome the current experimental limitations and develop a new optical method for the precise imaging and manipulation of neurons even deep in the brain of living animals. To this end we will extend advanced high-resolution optogenetic stimulation and imaging techniques to an optical micro-endoscope capable of reaching the desired depth in the brain of mice. Proof of principle experiments in vivo in the amygdala of mice will be performed. This highly multidisciplinary project, at the frontiers between optics and neuroscience, will require the great expertise of the host group in optogenetics methods, the strong background of the fellow in high-resolution optical techniques and the collaboration with an external advisor, expert in neurophysiology. The success of this research will provide new powerful tools to study the brain, thus potentiating the European competitiveness in this important field.

Keywords: optogenetics,nonlinear microscopy,two photon stimulation,optical micro endoscopy,calcium imaging,holography,neural circuits,amygdala,in depth imaging
Symbiotic bacteria in midges: understanding their role in determining vector competence and transmission of viruses (MIDGESYM)

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: United Kingdom
Call: Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF-EF) (H2020-MSCA-IF-2014, 2014)
Start date: 2015-08-01
End date: 2017-07-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 183454.8
EU funding (EUR): 183454.8
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The health of livestock is commonly impacted by viruses acquired from midge vectors. The viruses transferred following a midge bite cause considerable economic losses across the EU, making control of midges/midge vector competence a pressing concern. Recent research has indicated some inherited symbionts may alter the vector competence of their insect host, and thus represent viable means of interrupting pathogen transmission in natural populations. However, reduction of vector competence has only been considered for Wolbachia symbiont infections, and for viruses of importance to human health. Midges, in contrast, are commonly infected with a Cardinium heritable symbiont with unknown properties. This project seeks to establish tools for understanding this symbiont, and investigate whether it affects host immune system activity and vector competence following exposure to an infected blood meal. This proposal will thus provide both fundamental understanding of a poorly studied symbiont in an important host group, and, more practically, evaluate whether alteration of symbiont presence is a viable means of interrupting viral transmission.
Simultaneous magnetic brain stimulation and measurement (STIMUSURE)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: Marie-Sklodowska-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Individual Fellowships (IF)-Reintegration panel
Action type: Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions
Panel: Life Sciences
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call: Individual Fellowships (H2020-MSCA-IF-2020, 2020)
Start date: 2021-08-18
End date: 2024-02-15
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 224933.76
EU funding (EUR): 224933.76
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Current methods for directly measuring the connectivity between brain regions are lacking. A causal measurement of a functional connection between two brain regions requires stimulation of the first region whilst measuring the response from the other. Stimulation with high spatio-temporal resolution can be delivered with transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), but there are no suitable methods for simultaneously measuring the response with high spatio-temporal resolution. The state-of-the-art functional neuroimaging modalities have either too low spatial resolution, too low temporal resolution, or, in case of magnetoencephalography (MEG), are considered incompatible with TMS. With STIMUSURE, we aim to solve this incompatibility issue between TMS and MEG and build the first TMS–MEG device. During this two-year project, I will design magnetic shielding to enable TMS inside a magnetically shielded room (MSR) and build TMS-compatible resilient optically pumped magnetometers (OPM) based on nonlinear magneto-optical rotation (NMOR) technique. Unlike earlier ultra-sensitive magnetic field sensors, these NMOR-OPM sensors can tolerate the magnetic field pulses due to TMS. Ultimately, such a device would allow accurate measurement of the functional connectivity and quantifying its task-specific modulation, which would benefit both cognitive neuroscience and the study of brain disorders.

Keywords: transcranial magnetic stimulation,magnetoencephalography,optically pumped magnetometer
Human Landscapes: agricultural intensification and peasant resilience in medieval Southern Greater Syria. (HumanLand)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: Marie-Sklodowska-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Individual Fellowships (IF)-Career Restart panel
Action type: Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions
Panel: Social Sciences and Humanities
Countries involved: Germany
Call: Individual Fellowships (H2020-MSCA-IF-2019, 2019)
Start date: 2022-01-01
End date: 2024-01-14
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 174806.4
EU funding (EUR): 174806.4
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Medieval Islamic Archaeology in Southern Greater Syria is relevant to the sustainable agricultural intensification discourse due the implementation of state intensive land use for profit that affected the lives of peasants and the ecology of semi-arid regions. Medieval Islamic agricultural intensification practices included irrigation, fertilizers, overgrazing, deforestation and cash cropping, which increase agricultural yields. The project “Human Landscapes: agricultural intensification and peasant resilience in medieval Southern Greater Syria” (HumanLand), offers a deep-time perspective on these issues. According to surveys and historic resources, the later medieval Islamic eras were marked by the collapse of the Mamluk state, the decline of major agricultural centers, and a shift to a seasonal basis occupation partly due to climatic stressors of the end of the 14th and 15th centuries, as well as the lack of state resources and support. HumanLand will use new environmental and textual data for medieval land-use to investigate these three objectives: 1) To identify changes in agricultural intensification in relation to climatic, political and economic shifts that took place in the late 14th and much of the 15th centuries, 2) To investigate the use of sustainable strategies and impact of imperial regimes on medieval communities, and 3) To investigate the impact of political structures on the ecology in semi-arid regions. The project will use botanical micro remains (phytolith, starches and spherulites) and stable isotope data from crop remains to understand agricultural practices of six medieval communities of Jordan and Israel. This evidence will be evaluated with information on land-use in medieval texts. These methods combined, provide evidence for intensified agriculture making this research one of the few studies done, which combine the different approaches proposed to approach the big picture of medieval Islamic agricultural history.

Keywords: environmental history,southern levant,micro botanical data,political ecology,sustainable agriculture
Neural circuit mechanisms of memory destabilization (DstablizeMemory)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — 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
Countries involved: Switzerland
Call: ERC STARTING GRANTS (ERC-2020-STG, 2020)
Start date: 2021-02-01
End date: 2026-01-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1500000.0
EU funding (EUR): 1500000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Memories can be rendered rewritable through a phenomenon called reconsolidation. The all-limiting step in this memory re-evaluation process is its initiation; the retrieval-dependent destabilization of the memory. However, the understanding of how a stable memory can be switched into a vulnerable but modifiable state is mostly in its infancy. Therefore, I aim to investigate the neural circuit mechanisms underlying retrieval-induced memory destabilization in the tractable fruit fly brain. A prerequisite to investigate the neural mechanisms involved in destabilizing a memory is to know where the learned information is stored and to have access to the associated network. Olfactory memories in flies are stored in the mushroom body as changes between odor coding principle cells and valence coding output neurons. The cell specific genetic access to the 2500 neurons of each mushroom body allows to manipulate and monitor the activity of all components of the network in behaving animals. Recently I established a paradigm that allows to study the mechanisms underlying memory reconsolidation in this numerically simple brain structure. First results indicate that I have identified specific neurons which are crucial for destabilizing reward memory. Starting from these findings I will study the neural circuit mechanisms involved in memory destabilization. I aim to generate an understanding of 1) the neural circuits underlying memory destabilization 2) how restrictive conditions gate reconsolidation 3) the role of targeted protein degradation in the destabilization of memory The work will establish the first mechanistic insight into how memories are destabilized, how a destabilized memory is represented in the brain and how boundary conditions prevent the initiation of memory reconsolidation.

Keywords: reconsolidation,boundary conditions,neural circuits,drosophila melanogaster,memory destabilization
Quantum Light Enterprise (QLite)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Proof of concept grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Fundamental constituents of matter
Panel description: Particle, nuclear, plasma, atomic, molecular, gas, and optical physics
Countries involved: Germany
Call: ERC Proof of Concept Grant (ERC-2018-PoC, 2018)
Start date: 2019-01-01
End date: 2019-12-31
Duration (months): 12.0
Total project cost (EUR): 262350.0
EU funding (EUR): 149850.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Quantum noise of laser light limits the sensitivity of many optical measurement devices. This project will proof the concept of a new innovative idea that is able to reduce the quantum noise of laser light."

Keywords: squeezed light,vibrometer,photometer,cryptography
Integrated solution for innovative biodegradation control of agricultural plastic mulches. (BIOMULCH)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Industrial Leadership
Action type: Innovation actions
Countries involved: Spain,Germany,Spain,Spain,Netherlands
Call: Fast Track to Innovation Pilot (H2020-FTIPilot-2016-1, 2016)
Start date: 2016-12-01
End date: 2019-05-31
Duration (months): 30.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1976993.75
EU funding (EUR): 1613667.5
Participants: 5
Project status: CLOSED

Nowadays, mulching is an essential technique used in agriculture to satisfy the worldwide growing demand for agricultural products. It consists of covering the soil surface in order to modify climate conditions and favouring the crops. Conventional mulch is made of polyethylene plastic with important limitations: the plastic has to be removed after the harvest (time consuming, expensive & 10-20% remaining at soil) and it is difficult to be recycled due to its high contamination by ground, stones or waste, being the most part (45.2%) placed in landfills. Therefore, plastic mulches cause serious problems of environmental and economic concerns. Other developed mulch alternatives are not sufficient: oxodegradable (based on polyethylene, are a risk of accumulation in environment) and biodegradable (do not guarantee total degradation under uncontrolled conditions and they are three times more expensive). There is a market demand to find alternatives. Our innovative product, BIOMULCH, will be a biobased mulch with controlled biodegradation (independent from temperature, humidity and soil conditions) and being cost competitive (€1,100/ha respect to €3,000/ha of polyethylene, €2,078/ha of oxodegradable and €2,150/ha of biodegradable), covering the current agriculture market needs. BIOMULCH will be commercialised as a kit and will guarantee the farmers the complete mulch film biodegradation when is exactly required by them. The mulch film will be fully degraded in a 30-40 days period with our innovative mulching technique. As a result, it is expected an important growth for consortium companies, obtaining a total turnover above €354M in 2018-2022. Also it is expected an important benefit for UE, above 759M euros by 2022, derived from savings for farmers and waste savings. BIOMULCH counts already with letters of support of prestigious companies which are very interested in its business model.

Keywords: biodegradation,bioplastic,mulch films,agriculture,plasticulture,resource efficiency,soil protection
Bounding Nuclear Exceptionalism (BNE)

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: Social Sciences and Humanities
Countries involved: France
Call: Individual Fellowships (H2020-MSCA-IF-2020, 2020)
Start date: 2022-09-01
End date: 2024-08-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 184707.84
EU funding (EUR): 184707.84
Participants: 1
Project status: TERMINATED

The demise of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty in 2019 has rendered it impossible for Europeans to know whether the missiles that may fly over their territories carry a nuclear payload or not. This development has brought the question of the entanglement between the nuclear and the non-nuclear world to the forefront of international security. Existing scholarship, however, has operated under an assumption of nuclear exceptionalism, treating nuclear weapons as special and different. In response, nuclear and conventional scholars have each crafted their own fields of study, with their own theories and without much interaction between them. The assumption of nuclear exceptionalism has thus blinded scholars to the question of entanglement. In BNE, I will offer a diagnostic of the problem and formulate proposals to move scholarship beyond this blind spot. To that end, I ask the following question: How do the practices of nuclear exceptionalism shape nuclear weapons policy options? To address it, I first identify scholarly practices of nuclear exceptionalism. I then examine the effects of the assumption of nuclear exceptionalism on international policy through two novel case studies: (1) the development of tactical nuclear weapons in the United States and France in the 1980s and (2) the successes and limits of disarmament movements as compared to other large social movements from the 1980s to the present. Lastly, I propose avenues for re-embedding nuclear scholarship within the broader study of international politics. By bridging the gap between the nuclear and non-nuclear realm, this project allows us to understand how and why countries make certain choices in constructing their military arsenals and reflect upon ways to disrupt the new arms race. Beyond producing the first-ever systemic analysis of nuclear exceptionalism, I aim to publish academic articles on each of the case studies and translate my findings to a broader audience through public engagement.

Keywords: nuclear weapons,conventional capabilities,intellectual history,tactical nuclear weapons,social movements,arms control