Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Empirical and mechanistic foundations for synergistic predictive processing in the sensory brain (SynPrePro)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: The Human Mind and Its Compl exity
Panel description: Cognitive science, psychology, linguistics
Countries involved: Spain,Germany
Call: ERC STARTING GRANTS (ERC-2023-STG, 2023)
Start date: 2024-03-01
End date: 2029-02-28
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1499945.0
EU funding (EUR): 1499945.0
Participants: 2
Project status: SIGNED

Humans effortlessly process over 200 spoken words per minute in casual conversation. Speech recognition algorithms still fail at this challenging task. Our superior performance stems from our capacity to predict what the speaker may say next. Understanding how the brain uses these predictions to process the sensory input is crucial to understand perceptual function and dysfunction: dyslexia, autism and psychosis have all been linked to an impaired handling of predictions. Hierarchical predictive coding (HPC) is the current leading framework to understand how predictions help us processing sensory inputs. However, HPC is only compatible with the function and organisation of the cerebral cortex. This is a decisive shortcoming: while only cortical stages have the foresight to perform conceptually accurate predictions, only subcortical stations have the temporal properties required to correctly process fast sensory inputs. SynPrePro will reformulate HPC as an integrated theory explaining how cortical and subcortical stages work together to proficiently process fast and complex sensory inputs like speech. I will use a unique experimental-theoretical approach to study the human auditory pathway as a model for sensory pathways in four work packages (WPs). WP1 will use cutting-edge human neuroimaging to unravel the implementation of HPC in the auditory pathway. WP2 will use innovative model-based neuroimaging to identify the mechanisms responsible for the generation of conceptually accurate and temporally precise predictions. In WP3 I will develop a ground-breaking computational model to identify the neural mechanisms implementing HPC in the thalamocortical loop. WP4 will use big-data analytics to disentangle how cortical and subcortical stages work together to swiftly process speech. The outcomes will turn the cortical paradigm of HPC into an integrated theory of cortico-subcortical interactions, revolutionising our understanding of perceptual function and dysfunction.

Keywords: auditory perception,thalamocortical interactions,predictive coding
Next generation flexible trigeneration geothermal ORC plant (nGEL)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness
Programme: Climate, Energy and Mobility
Theme: Energy
Destination: Sustainable, secure and competitive energy supply
Action type: Innovation actions
Countries involved: Germany,Belgium,Türkiye,Ireland,France,United Kingdom
Call: Smart use of geothermal electricity and heating and cooling in the energy system (HORIZON-CL5-2023-D3-02, 2023)
Start date: 2024-06-01
End date: 2028-05-31
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 5214465.0
EU funding (EUR): 4346688.47
Participants: 7
Project status: SIGNED

The role of power, heating and cooling is critical to achieve the EU objective of climate neutrality by 2050. Heating and cooling represent today 46% of EU energy system, that is, more than 5700 TWh, out of which, only 18% are produced with renewable sources of heating. To exploit the geothermal for energy balancing at scale, it is essential to focus on the best use of low to medium temperature resources because Europe possesses mostly low-enthalpy resources at temperature ranging from 110oC to 170oC and they are predominantly found in sedimentary formations such as the Pannonian Basin or the Upper Rhein Graben. EGS based geothermal can be developed anywhere across the EU. Low to medium temperature geothermal field developed based on either hydrothermal resources or EGS can be technically exploited by binary or ORC plant for power generation. Flexible ORC operation to produce load following power is economically challenging. nGEL is aiming to transform a geothermal ORC plant to a flexible tri-generation plant capable of both efficiently as well as cost effectively responding to the dynamic demand of power, heating, and cooling, attributing geothermal energy as a dispatchable source to balance the power and thermal grid against the progressive integration of intermittent RES (i.e., solar, wind). This will be achieved through the integration of absorption chiller, thermal energy storage, cold thermal energy storage, heat exchangers, smart control and energy management system (EMS) with AI functionalities. EMS will schedule the production and distribution of power, heat and cooling by interacting day-ahead market, grid operator, and analysing predicted energy demand and prices. If the nGEL technology can be implemented in all of the existing ORC plants in the EU, around 215 TWht heat can be delivered to the thermal grid, which is approximately 4% of the EU current annual heat demand, which corresponds to annual economic saving (on NG import) of € 9.6 billion/year.

Keywords: chiller,thermal storage,trigeneration
Lipid Diversity at the Onset of Life (LipDive)

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: United Kingdom
Call: ERC STARTING GRANTS (ERC-2024-STG, 2024)
Start date: 2024-11-01
End date: 2029-10-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1500000.0
EU funding (EUR): 1500000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

The origin of cell membranes is a major unresolved issue in evolution. Evolutionary biology points to the existence of primitive cells with compositionally diverse membranes that could actively participate in genetic and metabolic processes. However, the assumption that such lipid diversity is dependent upon enzymatic chemistry has generated models comprising compositionally minimal membranes (binary or ternary mixtures of short-chain fatty or phosphatidic acids) that passively host genetic or metabolic processes. LipDive seeks to reconcile biology and chemistry by challenging the critical limiting assumption that lipid diversity cannot be achieved through non-enzymatic, prebiotic chemistries. LipDive will identify prebiotic chemistries that could have given rise to compositionally diverse membranes and show how these support characteristic behaviours necessary for nucleic acid replication and membrane division, the hallmarks of a cell cycle. To achieve this goal, I will harness diversity-oriented prebiotic synthesis to non-enzymatically transform primitive pluripotent lipids into libraries of diverse lipids (WP1). These lipids will be used to build compositionally diverse membranes (WP2) capable of interacting with membrane-editing protoenzymes and ribozymes (WP3). Coupling membrane division and nucleic acid replication will ultimately lead to a primitive cell cycle. LipDive will advance the state-of-the-art in the origins-of-life field by probing the emergence, assembly and evolution of cell membranes, and finally connecting prebiotic chemistry and early biology. LipDive will lead to i) a fundamental understanding of the origins of lipid diversity, including the features now associated with bacterial and archaeal lipids; ii) new strategies based on compositionally diverse membranes to probe, sense or replicate cellular behaviours; and iii) a deep-rooted understanding of the emergence and evolution of cellular processes at the molecular level.

Keywords: lipid,membrane,protocell,prebiotic chemistry,origins of life
PRedictive brain in Early-life: Exploring Mental Health development and Psychiatric Trajectories (PRE-EMHPT)

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: Life Sciences
Countries involved: Germany
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2024 (HORIZON-MSCA-2024-PF-01, 2024)
Start date: 2025-03-01
End date: 2027-02-28
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 202125.12
EU funding (EUR): 202125.12
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Over the last year, a global mental health crisis has severely impacted a generation of children and adolescents, with 20% of EU youth experiencing a mental disorder by the age of 24. Despite calls by the European Child Guarantee to reduce this burden through early detection and intervention, there are still no reliable biological markers to identify children at risk of future mental health. While mental disorders are usually first diagnosed during adolescence, the brain mechanisms underlying them begin prior to their behavioural manifestations. Looking at brain development is a promising approach to predict mental health in children, as brain follows typical growth curves during childhood. However, previous neuroimaging studies have struggled to establish a consistent link between brain development and mental health due to inconsistencies in brain measure and mental health. The PRE-EMHPT project aims to overcome these challenges by applying standardized measures of brain growth in children to predict mental health in adolescence, and identify the key periods of brain vulnerability underlying these trajectories. It will harmonize the largest longitudinal brain imaging datasets in children from 24 cohorts, encompassing 18,000 subjects, to generate sex-specific standard brain measures for each age. From these measures, the applicant will define subgroups of subjects based on the similarity of the growth of their brain regions, and estimate their associations with mental health in adolescence. The specific periods in time increasing the risk of belonging to one subgroup will be estimated as well as the validity of the results in adolescents and young adults with psychiatric disorders. This work will be conducted over 24 months at Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin’s Centre for Population Neurosciences and Stratified Medicine (PONS), under the supervision of Prof. Gunter Schumann.
The impact of early life infections on non-communicable diseases (ELIaD)

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: Life Sciences
Countries involved: Netherlands
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2023 (HORIZON-MSCA-2023-PF-01, 2023)
Start date: 2025-01-01
End date: 2026-12-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 203464.32
EU funding (EUR): 203464.32
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

A number of associations confirm that a broad spectrum of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) can stem from infections, but evidence remains limited. Of particular interest are infections that occur during vulnerable early life stages, as they hold the potential to trigger developmental adaptations of various organ systems with life-long consequences. The "Early Life Infections and NCDs" (ELIaD) project aims to elucidate the role of early life infections on NCDs development by bridging existing data on infections with information on NCDs and their intermediate phenotypes in children across Europe. Leveraging the extensive resources of the EU Child Cohort Network, ELIaD will use existing harmonized prospective data on neurodevelopmental, cardiometabolic, and respiratory health outcomes linked to major NCDs. Simultaneously, the project will pioneer with the development of harmonised variables on infections in the child-cohorts that is currently lacking. Detailed prospective information on sociodemographic, lifestyle and environmental characteristics will be integrated to assess confounding, mediation and effect modification of the associations. Analyses will particularly take into account specific age windows of susceptibility. The project will create and disseminate new knowledge on links between early life infections and NCDs in children and will identify vulnerable groups. A key output of ELIaD will be the creation of a large open dataset on infections and NCDs in children, which will allow further investigation of causal links (e.g. with gastrointestinal diseases), in-depth investigations into the underlying mechanisms and the extension of evidence into adulthood. The outcomes of this research will play a vital role in shaping public health policies geared towards the prevention and control of NCDs. The project combines researcher's skills with those of the supervisor and his team at the host institute facilitating cross-disciplinary knowledge exchange and training.

Keywords: infections child cohorts ncds dohad neurodevelopment cardiometabolic respiratory diseases children pregnancy early life infectobesity
Extracting Useful energy from indoor Air for Proper Indoor Climate (TICS)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Innovative Europe
Programme: The European Innovation Council (EIC)
Theme: EIC Accelerator
Destination: Other destinations
Action type: EIC actions
Countries involved: Finland
Call: EIC Accelerator 2024 - Short application (HORIZON-EIC-2024-ACCELERATOR-01, 2024)
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2500000.0
EU funding (EUR): 2500000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

There are approximately 131 million buildings in Europe, out of which 119 million are residential and almost 12 million are non-residential. Buildings consume 40 % of the global energy where 80% of this energy is used in their HVAC systems. Standard HVACs systems are high energy consumers, resulting in high costs and carbon footprint. Besides these unmet needs, relevant for both residential and non-residential sectors, several manufacturing and processing industries face the problem of poor control of indoor conditions such as temperature and humidity. In industries such as biotech/pharma, electronics, battery and semiconductor manufacturing, precise control of these conditions is key to ensure end-product quality and operational efficiency, not to mention cost efficiency. Eco Living Oy is developing a cutting-edge, proprietary technology TICS (Total Indoor Climate Solution). TICS brings the world’s first dual control of temperature and absolute humidity. It provides 100 % fresh air exchange with a steady healthy Indoor Climate regardless of the prevailing fluctuating Outdoor conditions at the lowest possible energy consumption. TICS uniquely leverages enthalpy and smart usage of thermodynamic principles through its novel CC2 MultiCoil hardware, the TIC2 control unit and our proprietary algorithms to recover energy from exhaust Air. This pioneering approach significantly boosts energy efficiency, reducing overall energy consumption compared to current standard HVAC systems. Our goal is to leverage this unique value proposition, bringing TICS to customers from key manufacturing and processing industries as well to existing residential buildings for energy-efficiency increase with a non-invasive retrofit that would benefit the most from this, to subsequently expand to other commercial and residential buildings. With EIC support, we will bring TICS to market readiness, unlocking unique scale-up potential for Eco Living and an unprecedented opportunity for the EIC.

Keywords: renewable energy recovered energy circular economy hvac systems indoor climate
Skyrora XL: Europe's Dedicated Small Satellite Launcher (Skyrora XL)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Innovative Europe
Programme: The European Innovation Council (EIC)
Theme: EIC Accelerator
Destination: Other destinations
Action type: EIC actions
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call: EIC Accelerator 2024 - Short application (HORIZON-EIC-2024-ACCELERATOR-01, 2024)
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2499999.0
EU funding (EUR): 2499999.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

The global demand for small satellite launchers outstrips the current supply of launch vehicles. With today’s launcher capacity, only 35% of the small-sats to be launched by 2030 can be met. With limited options for near-sourcing its launch needs, Europe is especially vulnerable in this global market. At Skyrora, we aim to provide a versatile, convenient, and environmentally responsible end-to-end space transportation service for small satellite payloads, with Europe being our primary target market. We will achieve this by deploying Skyrora XL, a three-stage orbital launch vehicle capable of delivering payloads of up to 315 kg to low earth orbit. Skyrora XL allows critical customer needs to be met, such as reduced time-to-orbit via its design simplicity; tailored orbital insertion of multiple payloads via XL’s third-stage; environmentally responsible via unique closed-cycle engine technology using RP-1/HTP propellant, and low vibrational launch via low thrust-to-weight ratio. Within this project, we will develop Skyrora XL’s payload module from TRL5 to TRL8. Through its third stage included in the payload module, Skyrora XL will have a space tug that enables a last-mile delivery service for our satellite operators, increasing orbit trajectory accuracy, and offering the ability to launch multiple satellites into different orbits in the same mission, offering distinct competitive advantages. Skyrora XL will have a critical impact on Europe’s sovereignty in the space industry by increasing the availability of launch options in Europe. This will also help to reduce economic activity transfer out of Europe to competitor regions. As a team, we are 105-strong and share 200+ years of collective rocketry experience and 350+ tonnes of payload deployed among us.

Keywords: propulsion systems engineering,dedicated launchers,in orbit servicing
Democratize Trustworthy and Efficient Large Language Model Technology for Europe (TrustLLM)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness
Programme: Digital, Industry and Space
Theme: Digital
Destination: A human-centred and ethical development of digital and industrial technologies
Action type: Research and Innovation actions
Partnership: AI-DATA-ROBOTICS (co-programmed)
Countries involved: Sweden,Germany,Iceland,Denmark,Norway,Netherlands
Call: Natural Language Understanding and Interaction in Advanced Language Technologies (AI Data and Robotics Partnership) (RIA) (HORIZON-CL4-2023-HUMAN-01-CNECT, 2023)
Start date: 2023-11-01
End date: 2026-10-31
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 6929702.5
EU funding (EUR): 6929701.0
Participants: 11
Project status: SIGNED

The TrustLLM project will develop European large language models (LLMs) on an unprecedented scale, trained on the largest amount of text so far in European AI, covering a range of underrepresented languages, and pushing the limits of European exascale computing. The main objective is the development of an open, trustworthy, and sustainable LLM initially targeting the Germanic languages. This will create the foundation for an advanced open ecosystem for next generation modular and extensible European trustworthy, sustainable, and democratized large language models. The TrustLLM project and the surrounding ecosystem will enable, support, and improve context-aware human-machine interaction in a wide range of applications. To achieve this, TrustLLM will tackle the full range of challenges of LLM development, from ensuring sufficient quality and quantity of multilingual training data, to sustainable efficiency and effectiveness of model training, to enhancements and refinements for factual correctness, transparency, and trustworthiness, to a suite of holistic evaluation benchmarks validating the multi-dimensional objectives. The TrustLLM consortium has unique expertise and practical experience in building LLMs, combined with leading NLP researchers as well as organizations working on transfering the technology to companies and end-users. The models developed will be the most powerful and trustworthy LLMs in Europe, and they will constitute a major breakthrough in AI that will establish a new foundation for the next generation of large-scale European AI models. Our focus on Germanic languages can serve as a blueprint for future activities in other families of languages. This will help secure Europe’s sovereignty with respect to crucial AI technologies, establishing a novel framework for European collaboration on LLMs, and creating the foundation for a pan-European center for LLMs and large-scale AI to maximise the scientific, social, and economical impact.

Keywords: large language models,trustworthy ai,large scale training,supercomputing,multilingual germanic language family,low resource languages,multi metric benchmark
MOST EFFICIENT THERMO-CATALYTIC DECOMPOSITION (TCD) FOR HIGH-VALUE SOLID CARBON (HYCAMITE)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Innovative Europe
Programme: The European Innovation Council (EIC)
Theme: EIC Accelerator
Destination: Other destinations
Action type: EIC actions
Countries involved: Finland
Call: EIC Accelerator 2024 - Short application (HORIZON-EIC-2024-ACCELERATOR-01, 2024)
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2490000.0
EU funding (EUR): 2490000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

At Hycamite, we address the urgent global challenge of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and the dependency on imported critical raw materials, particularly in industries reliant on biogas and natural gas. The European Union’s goal to become carbon neutral by 2050 faces significant hurdles, including the inefficiency and environmental impact of current technologies. The EU imports over 90% of its sustainable solid carbon materials and 85% of its hydrogen, creating vulnerabilities in the supply chain that threaten energy security and economic resilience. To meet these challenges, we have developed a groundbreaking thermo-catalytic decomposition (TCD) process for methane. Our proprietary TCD technology enables the efficient production of low-carbon hydrogen and high-value solid carbon materials, including graphite, without emitting CO2. This innovation stands out not only for its environmental benefits but also for its economic viability and scalability. Our TCD process operates at lower temperatures (600-800°C) than traditional methods, significantly reducing energy consumption to just 6-10 kWh/kg H2, compared to 50-55 kWh/kg for water electrolysis. The key benefits of our technology are clear and impactful. By producing hydrogen at below €3/kg and achieving zero CO2 emissions, we provide an affordable and environmentally friendly alternative to current methods, where green hydrogen costs between €6-13/kg and grey hydrogen has a significant CO2 footprint. Additionally, our process generates high-purity carbon products that are critical for the European battery and advanced materials industries, ensuring that the EU can reduce its dependency on non-European imports.

Keywords: greenhouse gas emissions,thermo catalytic decomposition tcd,low carbon hydrogen,solid carbon materials,carbon neutrality,sustainable solid carbon materials