Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Healthy or harmful distrust? On the democratic relevance of political scepticism over blind (dis)trust (CRITICALTRUST)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Consolidator grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Institutions, Governance and Legal Systems
Panel description: Political science, international relations, law
Countries involved: Netherlands
Call: ERC CONSOLIDATOR GRANTS (ERC-2021-COG, 2021)
Start date: 2023-09-01
End date: 2028-08-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1999995.0
EU funding (EUR): 1999995.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Paradoxically, representative democracy requires not only citizens’ trust in the institutions of democracy, but also a healthy dose of political scepticism towards these institutions. Scholars have warned against the detrimental effects of blind trust and blind distrust. The former would make citizens susceptible to manipulation, the latter to alienation. By contrast, (dis)trust that is not blind but evaluative stimulates vigilant civic engagement. While blind (dis)trust would lead to an anomic democracy, evaluative (dis)trust would stimulate democratic reinvigoration and accountability. We should therefore not merely distinguish between political trust and distrust, but also between dispositional/blind and evaluative (dis)trust. However, empirical studies of political trust focus almost exclusively on the level of trust. The standard political trust survey items cannot distinguish blind (dis)trust from evaluative (dis)trust. This vast lacuna at the heart of political trust research left the major questions in the field unanswered: on the trends, causes, and consequences of political trust. CRITICALTRUST addresses this fundamental problem. It first develops a novel, two-dimensional model of political (dis)trust, and creates new measures that distinguish blind from evaluative (dis)trust. This model and these measures will be the foundation for primary data collection (large-N survey + experiments). The survey is designed as a three-wave, cross-national panel survey in 8 European countries: Estonia, France, Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. Both the survey’s panel element and the experiments allow us to systematically test causal effects that have long been proposed in the literature. CRITICALTRUST thereby answers questions that plagued political trust research for decades. It will offer diagnoses of the risks of low and declining trust, and advice to democratic actors whether and how to stimulate political trust.

Keywords: political trust political distrust scepticism political support trust crisis trust in government the democratic relevance of trust political cynicism democratic support institutional trust democratic erosion legitimacy
Environmental thresholds for drought- and heat-related tree mortality (DRYTREE)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Environmental B iology, Ecology  and E volution
Panel description: For all organisms : Ecology, biodiversity, environmental change , evolutionary biology, behavioural ecology, microbial ecology , marine biology, ecophysiology, theoretical developments and mod elling
Countries involved: Finland
Call: ERC STARTING GRANTS (ERC-2023-STG, 2023)
Start date: 2024-01-01
End date: 2028-12-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1812500.0
EU funding (EUR): 1812500.0
Participants: 2
Project status: SIGNED

One of the most pressing ecological questions is how trees and forests can survive in increasing intensity and frequency of droughts and extreme heat. Wide-spread drought-related tree mortality has been witnessed globally over the last decade and in 2022, Europe suffered from the worst drought in 500 years. Understanding and predicting the impact of drought and heat on tree mortality is limited due to lack of knowledge on the environmental conditions that lead to tree mortality. For the first time, it is feasible to quantify spatial and temporal tree mortality patterns and capture tree structure and species over large geographic regions at the individual tree-level. This enables me to aim to uncover environmental thresholds and key environmental drivers of drought- and heat-related tree mortality at the species-level for various forest biomes. Use of state-of-the-art remote sensing and deep learning methods allows me to capture where, when and what kind of trees (species, structure) have died for tens of millions of trees to increase our understanding of spatial and temporal tree mortality patterns. My approach uses laser scanning data to provide detailed tree 3D characterization and calculation of tree position within tree community (competition) and the landscape (water availability, microclimate). Then, combining these variables with information on tree xylem vulnerability, pest insects, soil temperature and climate, we can ultimately reveal species-specific environmental thresholds and key drivers of drought- and heat-related tree mortality. This research will open new horizons, bringing ecophysiology, remote sensing, forest ecology and entomology together, and developing methods to quantify drivers of tree mortality in much greater depth than has been possible to date. From these findings, we will be able to inform forest managers and policy makers which forests are at risk for increasing the resilience of future forests.

Keywords: tree mortality,drought,plant physiology,deep learning,laser scanning
Wetland restoration for the future (ALFAwetlands)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness
Programme: Climate, Energy and Mobility
Theme: Climate
Destination: Climate sciences and responses for the transformation towards climate neutrality
Action type: Research and Innovation actions
Countries involved: Finland,Germany,Sweden,Estonia,Austria,Belgium,Spain,France,Netherlands,Latvia
Call: Restoration of natural wetlands, peatlands and floodplains as a strategy for fast mitigation benefits; pathways, trade-offs and co-benefits (HORIZON-CL5-2021-D1-01, 2021)
Start date: 2022-06-01
End date: 2026-11-30
Duration (months): 54.0
Total project cost (EUR): 7967118.75
EU funding (EUR): 7967115.0
Participants: 15
Project status: SIGNED

Wetlands cover 5-8% of the world’s land area and have a huge capacity to sequester carbon (C). Healthy wetlands accumulate C effectively due to water-logged conditions promoting highly stable C content. The EU aims to cut GHG emissions by at least 55% by 2030.This ambition requires new GHG mitigation measures within all sectors including LULUCF sector, where wetlands as C rich ecosystem can contribute to efficiently to both EU's climate targets and biodiversity strategy. Currently there is still a high uncertainty prevails of wetlands’ spatial and C sink extent, as well as source estimates and sustainable alternatives in restoration. This hinders the efficient use of wetlands in C mitigation and adaptation in the context of other LULUCF mitigation options. We will advance the state-of-the-art on the geospatial knowledge base on wetlands and their use and degradation in Europe. We will apply a co-creation approach to develop procedural knowledge and find ways for integrating multiple targets, supporting more inclusive, community-based approaches to wetland restoration. Diverse novel experimental data on ecosystems’ responses to wetlands’ management and restoration regimes under different types of land-use and will be acquired and synthesised on biodiversity and other ecosystem services (BES). At the local level, Living Labs (LL) support and integrate interdisciplinary and multi-actor research on ecological, environmental, economic, and social issues. Models will be utilised to scale up experimental data from LLs, to gain an understanding of the potential impacts of upscaled wetland restoration options on BES provision, as well as changes in BES provision at the EU level for various policy-relevant time periods and the most policy-relevant CC mitigation and BD targets. We will assess the societal impacts of wetland restoration, especially on BES benefits and costs of different restoration approaches and wellbeing impacts at local, national, and EU levels.

Keywords: wetland restoration,co creation,climate change mitigation,climate change adaptation,greenhouse gases,biodiversity,ecosystem services,remote sensing,modelling,scenarios
Involvement of EXtracellular vesicles in cell wall remodelling and InTercellular communication during the apical growth of PLANt cells. (EXIT PLAN)

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: Italy,Switzerland,United Kingdom
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2024 (HORIZON-MSCA-2024-PF-01, 2024)
Start date: 2026-02-01
End date: 2029-01-31
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 412700.52
EU funding (EUR): 412700.52
Participants: 3
Project status: SIGNED

In today’s fast-paced world, the need for innovative solutions leads to a preference for applied sciences over fundamental research, to the detriment of possible ground-breaking discoveries and revolutions in the future. This is the case of plant extracellular nanovesicles (PEVs), small vesicles secreted by plants which were first discovered in plant defence against pathogens, but that were soon co-opted by the biomedical research as promising nutraceuticals and drug delivery tools. To date, the majority of scientific literature on PEVs focuses on their possible therapeutic uses. Nonetheless, little is known about their biogenesis, secretion mechanism, and function in the plant kingdom, especially in physiological processes such as cell growth. This enormous gap in knowledge not only hinders their exploitation in plant biotechnology and agronomy, but also limits their safety in medical applications. EXIT PLAN will fill in this gap addressing three main research objectives (ROs), through three research work packages (WPs). First, the project will assess the nature of PEVs secreted during the apical growth of plant cells (RO1, WP2), and in particular pollen and root hairs. For this purpose, biomedical techniques for the characterisation of human nanovesicles will be readapted to isolate and characterise PEVs, during the secondment at Nottingham Trent University. Then, RO1 will be furtherly investigated at the University of Zurich, using plant transformation, advanced microscopy, and omics analyses to identify different PEVs populations. The same approach will be adopted to unveil how PEVs are externalised from the cell wall (RO2, WP3). Finally, the techniques learned during the outgoing phase will be implemented with a molecular biology approach at the University of Bologna, during the return phase, to understand the role of PEVs in cellular communication during cell growth (RO3, WP4), identifying PEVs targets and understanding the effects of PEV-based signalling.

Keywords: extracellular vesicles,apical growth,plant cell wall,intercellular communication,lrxs
CITYNATURE-BASED SOLUTIONS INTEGRATION TO LOCAL URBAN INFRASTRUCTURE PROTECTION FOR A CLIMATE RESILIENT SOCIETY (NBSINFRA)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness
Programme: Civil Security for Society
Theme: Civil Security for Society
Destination: Resilient Infrastructure
Action type: Research and Innovation actions
Countries involved: Portugal,Ireland,Germany,Bulgaria,Czechia,Italy,France,Lithuania,Malta,Greece
Call: Nature-based Solutions integrated to protect local infrastructure (HORIZON-CL3-2022-INFRA-01, 2022)
Start date: 2023-09-01
End date: 2026-08-31
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 5133778.16
EU funding (EUR): 4810585.55
Participants: 18
Project status: SIGNED

NBSINFRA supports the enhancement of the local urban critical infrastructures protection against natural and manmade hazards through the Nature-based solutions (NBS) co-design and co-creation for a climate change resilient society. NBSINFRA will demonstrate that the Nature-based solutions are: (a) technically viable for the protection of critical infrastructures against hazards, (b) socially acceptable and cost-effective at the local scale; and (c) efficiently capable to increase the empowerment of communities, through the increase of their ecological, social, and economic resilience. To achieve those goals, NBSINFRA will establish five (5) representative European regions with an equal number of “City Labs”. NBSINFRA City labs shall assess the cost-effectiveness of NBS in the protection of local infrastructure and shall maximize their impact based on solutions which will be citizen owned and co-created by end-users and managers and civil society. NBSINFRA will provide a toolkit that the different stakeholders and society can use to compare and choose the most effective NBS for local critical infrastructure protection, being the main goal the support for the enhancement of the local urban critical infrastructure protection against hazards through NBS co-design, co-monitoring, and co-creation for a sustainable and resilient society.
GOLDENRAM - EO PLATFORM SUPPORTING CRITICAL RAW MATERIALS INDUSTRY IN EUROPE (GoldenRAM)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness
Programme: Digital, Industry and Space
Theme: Industry
Destination: Increased Autonomy in Key Strategic Value Chains for Resilient Industry
Action type: Innovation actions
Countries involved: Finland,Netherlands,Germany,Romania,Ukraine,Poland,Belgium,Sweden,Portugal
Call: Earth Observation platform, products and services for raw materials (IA) (HORIZON-CL4-2023-RESILIENCE-01, 2023)
Start date: 2024-01-01
End date: 2026-12-31
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 7972248.52
EU funding (EUR): 6660647.74
Participants: 13
Project status: SIGNED

The GoldenRAM (G-RAM) project will provide easy exchange of accurate information on Raw Materials in the European Union and partnering resource-rich countries for organisations engaged in the mining industry and public stakeholders. The project will develop an Earth Observation Platform (G-RAM platform) leveraging novel Artificial Intelligence (AI) Natural Language processing in combination with advanced, proprietary Artificial Intelligence Knowledge Packs (AIKPs) which simplify complex computation workflows and provide seamless access to a unique and validated combination of geological and remote sensing data, domain expertise, and multipurpose mapping technologies for geological and mining industry stakeholders. Especially, the introduction of AIKPs plays an important role in advancing the TRL of state-of-the-art solutions and enabling their wider adoption among the industry and stakeholders. The G-RAM platform will be demonstrated in 6 field trials in Finland (2 sites), Sweden, Romania, Ukraine, and Portugal creating a compelling value proposition for implementation across the mining industry value chains and improving responsible and sustainable supply of CRMs: Co, Li, REE, P; PGMs Pd and Pt; as well as Cu and Ni to Europe. The project will increase the raw material investment potential for Ukraine by promoting exploitation prospects via the G-RAM platform therefore supporting implementation of the Roadmap for EU-Ukraine Strategic Partnership on raw materials. The consortium brings together interdisciplinary expertise fit to solve the challenges related to the building of large-scale ICT platforms, geologic and remote-sensing know-how, benchmarking, market analysis, business modelling and result dissemination, and will include 4 academic/research centres, 5 SMEs, and 4 end-users, supported by a strong External Advisory Board of experts in geosciences and mining.

Keywords: critical raw materials,artificial intelligence,big data,platform development,prospectivity mapping,exploration
Solar PolygEneration Collector for combined heaT, poweR, hydrogen fUel and wastewater treatMent (SPECTRUM)

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: Research and Innovation actions
Countries involved: Portugal,Sweden,United Kingdom,Germany,Italy,Spain,Belgium
Call: Next generation of renewable energy technologies (HORIZON-CL5-2024-D3-01, 2024)
Start date: 2024-10-01
End date: 2028-03-31
Duration (months): 42.0
Total project cost (EUR): 3036835.0
EU funding (EUR): 2999866.8
Participants: 10
Project status: SIGNED

The SPECTRUM project aims to develop, validate and test an innovative solar concentrating collector that fully harness the solar spectrum by converting solar radiation into three renewable energy vectors (solar heat, solar electricity and green hydrogen) required by industrial sector, while performing industrial wastewater treatment. SPECTRUM will boost the sustainability of IWW treatment, converting waste into a valuable solar fuel, through an efficient photocatalytic remediation process coupled with H2 cogeneration. Matching the energy grade between the solar spectrum and the conversions, the system uses the UV for photocatalytic H2 production with synergistic degradation of pollutants, infrared for generating thermal energy and visible-near infrared light for PV electricity, allowing to achieve higher solar conversion efficiency. SPECTRUM concept will go beyond the current state of the art through i) the development of low cost, sustainable photocatalysts with focus on dual-functional photocatalysis processes, i.e H2 production and pollutants degradation, and considering the easy recovery and reuse of the catalysts and ii) development of spectral splitting solutions to separate IR part of the solar spectrum allowing the PV cells to be thermally decoupled from the thermal absorber, generating high-temperature heat without compromising the electrical efficiency. Integrate optical, thermal, and electrical subsystem of SPECTRUM hybrid solar collector will be design and developed aiming to reach an effective total management and distribution of the solar radiation. Two hybrid solar collector prototypes for low and medium temperature (SPECTRUM-LT and SPECTRUM-HT) will be constructed and tested under outdoor conditions. Techno-economic analysis using Life Cycle Assessment and Life Cycle Costing, together with social impact analysis, will be used to validate the sustainability of the SPECTRUM approach in the economic, environmental and social domains.

Keywords: solar energy solar collector wastewater treatment photocatalytic hydrogen production polygeneration combined heat,power and fuel
Engaging Citizens in soil science: the road to Healthier sOils (ECHO)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness
Programme: Mission
Theme: Soil health and food
Destination: Soil health and food
Action type: Research and Innovation actions
Countries involved: Italy,Germany,Portugal,Greece,Romania,Spain,United Kingdom,Finland,Poland
Call: Citizen science for soil health (HORIZON-MISS-2022-SOIL-01, 2022)
Start date: 2023-06-01
End date: 2027-05-31
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 5344250.0
EU funding (EUR): 5344250.0
Participants: 17
Project status: SIGNED

The overall aim of ECHO is to engage EU citizens in soil health increasing their knowledge, by generating new data on the health status of EU soils to complement existing soil mapping and soil monitoring in EU Member States, and awareness on the ecological and societal importance of soils. ECHO is based on 3 main principles: 1) to engage citizens motivating them to protect and restore soils; 2) to empower citizens by providing knowledge and an active role in data collection; 3) to enable citizens to directly participate in decision-making on soil issues. ECHO will achieve this through co-creation with target societal groups as a cornerstone of delivering a step change in increased soil literacy in society across Member States. ECHO will develop tailor-made citizen science initiatives across EU Member States taking into account different land-uses, soil types and biogeographical regions as well as stakeholder needs, overcoming the recognised challenges related to age, culture, background and language (28 initiatives with 16500 sites assessed). Our ambition is to actively involve and engage citizens building the capacities and knowledge to promote soil stewardship across EU and foster social change through trust and improved understanding of soil. ECHO will create ECHOREPO, a long-term open access repository, fed with citizen science data to be exploited not only by scientists but also by the general public and end-users. This will leverage and provide added-value to existing data and other relevant soil monitoring initiatives. ECHO´s consortium consists of 16 participants with 9 leading universities and research centres, 5 SMEs, and 2 Foundations. The participants from small companies and foundations, as business and civil society representatives, are complementary to the soil and social sciences experts of academic partners and crucial to achieve the ambitious goals of ECHO.

Keywords: soil health,citizen science,soil steward,long term repository,citizen engagement,end user engagement