Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
LUCERO - Smart Optofluidic Micromanipulation of Biological Samples (LUCERO)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Proof of concept grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Physical and analytical chemical sciences
Panel description: Analytical chemistry, chemical theory, physical chemistry/chemical physics
Countries involved: Sweden
Call: Call for proposals for ERC Proof of Concept Grant (ERC-2020-PoC, 2020)
Start date: 2020-09-01
End date: 2022-02-28
Duration (months): 18.0
Total project cost (EUR): 150000.0
EU funding (EUR): 150000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The goal of Lucero is to create autonomous micromanipulation solutions for biological applications integrating optical manipulation, microfluidics, and machine intelligence. Single-cell analysis is critical in many biomedical applications, such as clinical trials, in-vitro fertilization, forensic analysis, and single-cell omics. In fact, it is an ideal moment to enter the single-cell analysis market, because this market is valued at $1.4 billion globally and expected to keep on growing with a compound annual rate higher than 17%. While some techniques are already commercially available, single-cell approaches still have several limitations. Mechanical tools (e.g., motorised micropipettes and microneedles, centrifugation) are invasive and prone to damage the cells. Labeled-sorting methods (e.g., flow-cytometry) can affect cell viability for subsequent protocols. Non-invasive sorting procedures based on microfluidics require high amounts of cells and numerous repetitions to obtain a significant fraction of target cells. Furthermore, in all cases these methods require expert handling and are labor intensive. With Lucero, we propose a solution that overcomes these problems based on a smart optofluidic platform: contactless thanks to the use of optical tweezers, capable of controlling the local cellular environment thanks to the use of microfluidics, and capable of autonomous and accurate operation thanks to machine intelligence. Lucero will be compatible with standard microscopes already available in biomedical laboratories, permit to completely automatize single-cell protocols, and therefore drastically lower the cost of biomedical research. Lucero already counts with an outstanding core team of scientists and experienced business people, and it will provide ~20 jobs to university-educated individuals in the EU within the next 5 years. Lucero has already received initial funding and support from two different organizations that support and believe in Lucero's venture.

Keywords: optical tweezers,microfluidics,machine learning,particle tracking
Can chromosome reorganisation aid adaptation to drought? (CondensDrought)

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: Austria
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): 174167.04
EU funding (EUR): 174167.04
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

The structure and function of plant genomes have been marked by a history of repeated cycles of whole genome duplications followed by diploidization. Despite the number of duplications in their ancestry, most extant plants, particularly herbaceous groups, exhibit low chromosome numbers (e.g. five pairs in Arabidopsis), but the drivers of this descending dysploidy remain little understood. The project will test a classical hypothesis from early in the last century that chromosomal reorganization is driven by selection to create linkage groups favourable for a particular habitat. To address this, I will focus on Nicotiana sect. Suaveolentes, a group with variable ecologies, including adaptation to deserts, and series of chromosome reductions. I will focus of species pairs including a species with higher chromosome number that prefers mesic habitats, and a related species with lower chromosome number that is adapted to extreme arid conditions. I plan to investigate if genes responsible for adaptation to extreme habitats are associated with genomic rearrangements, and in particular test if these genes tend to cluster within fewer linkage blocks than expected by chance. This action will obtain a comprehensive understanding about the contributions of post-WGD processes to evolutionary success and phenotypic novelty, providing new information on how genomic reorganization contributes to adaptation, speciation and adaptive radiation. It will also provide details on genes associated with adaptation to hot, dry habitats, important for understanding plant responses to climate change.

Keywords: plant genomes,polyploidy,chromosome number change,adaptation to drought,photosynthesis,demography
Bridging the evolutionary gap between unicellular endosymbiotic cyanobacteria and organelles (UCYNELLE)

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: Environment and Geosciences
Countries involved: Spain
Call: Individual Fellowships (H2020-MSCA-IF-2020, 2020)
Start date: 2021-11-16
End date: 2023-11-15
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 160932.48
EU funding (EUR): 160932.48
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Symbiosis has been key to evolution on Earth. The success of eukaryotes was possible due to the establishment of endosymbiotic relationships between unicellular microorganisms that gave rise to specialized organelles (chloroplasts and mitochondria), yet the mechanisms underpinning such biological innovations are still unresolved. An unusual marine nitrogen-fixing symbiosis involving a cyanobacterium called UCYN-A and a single-celled haptophyte algae (Braarudosphaera bigelowii) was recently found to have undergone genome rearrangements analogous to organelle evolution. Since no eukaryotes fix nitrogen (N2), an essential nutrient for life, knowledge on this peculiar symbiosis may serve as a unique opportunity for understanding the acquisition of new organelle-derived functions in eukaryotes. The UCYNELLE project is designed to provide new insights on organelle evolution through the multidisciplinary study of the UCYN-A symbiosis from an ecological, evolutionary and metabolic perspective: First, experimental manipulations with the UCYN-A culture and field surveys will be conducted to identify the molecular basis regulating the metabolic coupling between symbiotic partners and the associated microbiome. Second, the organelle genomes of the haptophyte host will be compared to those of the different UCYN-A lineages via comparative genomics to explore any parallelisms in their mode of evolution. Finally, the natural variation in cell size shown by UCYN-A and its host across different UCYN-A symbioses will allow investigating the metabolic scaling (metabolic rates vs cell size) of the N2 fixation process compared to that of typical organelle-driven metabolisms (photosynthesis and respiration) through the study of the volumetric relationships between chloroplasts, mitochondria, UCYN-A and its host. Elucidating the mechanism underlying the UCYN-A symbiosis will help to understand the early evolutionary steps leading to the acquisition of plastids in eukaryotes.

Keywords: single celled symbiosis,organelle evolution,marine microbial interactions
Mechanisms and regulation of inflammasome-associated programmed cell death (PyroPop)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Consolidator 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: Belgium,Belgium
Call: ERC Consolidator Grant (ERC-2015-CoG, 2015)
Start date: 2017-01-01
End date: 2021-12-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1997915.0
EU funding (EUR): 592586.21
Participants: 3
Project status: CLOSED

Programmed cell death is essential for homeostasis, and its deregulation contributes to human disease. Inflammasome-induced pyroptosis of infected macrophages contributes to host defense against infections, but the concomitant release of inflammatory danger signals and leaderless cytokines is detrimental in chronic inflammatory diseases. The central hypothesis of the PyroPop ERC Consolidator project is that inflammasomes are cytosolic platforms that couple pathogen sensing to multiple programmed cell death modes. This is based on our preliminary data showing that inflammasomes can be triggered to switch from inflammatory pyroptosis to programmed necrosis and non-inflammatory apoptosis. This suggests that the (patho)physiological outcomes of inflammasome activation may be modulated for therapeutic purposes. However, the molecular machinery and effector mechanisms of pyroptosis, inflammasome-induced apoptosis and programmed necrosis are virtually unknown. My objectives are (i) to explore the cleavage events and subcellular dynamics of pyroptosis by proteomics and high-resolution time-lapse microscopy; (ii) to clarify the molecular mechanisms of pyroptosis and inflammasome-controlled cell death switching; and (iii) to address how inflammasome-associated cell death modes impact on anti-bacterial host defense and chronic inflammatory pathology in vivo through the identification of pyroptosis-selective biomarkers and clinical analysis of pyroptosis-deficient mouse models. The central hypothesis in this regard is that inflammasome-mediated secretion of leaderless cytokines (such as IL-1β and IL-18) and danger signals may be mechanistically coupled to pyroptosis, but not apoptosis induction. By clarifying the mechanisms of inflammasome-controlled programmed cell death, this project may set the path for the development of an entirely novel class of inflammation-modulating therapies that are based on converting inflammatory pyroptosis into non-inflammatory apoptosis.

Keywords: pyroptosis,apoptosis,inflammasome
Integrated Modular Plant and Containerised Tools for Selective, Low-impact Mining of Small High-grade Deposits (IMPaCT)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Societal Challenges
Programme: Climate action, environment,  resource efficiency and raw materials
Theme: Ensuring the sustainable supply of non-energy and non-agricultural raw materials
Action type: Research and Innovation actions
Countries involved: Germany,Finland,Bosnia and Herzegovina,Serbia,Finland,France,France,France,United Kingdom,United Kingdom,United Kingdom,United Kingdom,United Kingdom,United Kingdom
Call: New solutions for sustainable production of raw materials (H2020-SC5-2016-OneStageB, 2016)
Start date: 2016-12-01
End date: 2020-11-30
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 6991820.0
EU funding (EUR): 6991820.0
Participants: 14
Project status: CLOSED

The current mining paradigm promotes extraction from large ‘world-class’ deposits that have required innovations in mining techniques to deal with low grades, large infrastructure to deal with high throughputs and large feasibility studies to prove long-term commercial viability. High investment in operations is no longer available in the current economic climate and many small companies have ceased to trade, concentrating production and limiting the ability of the raw materials market to respond to increased demand for raw materials or shortages in raw material supply. The problem is most extreme for critical raw materials that are produced in small quantities relative to traditional metal commodities because the potential return on investment is too low. The IMPaCT project proposes a solution that develops a new switch on-switch off (SOSO) mining paradigm to improve the viability of many critical metal and other small complex deposits. The whole systems approach that we have adopted to realise the SOSO mining paradigm centres around technological innovations in mining equipment design and mine planning that would reduce the feasibility studies required, throughput of extracted material, infrastructure, land use, resource consumption and waste. Successful business models for SOSO mining require that mining and processing technologies can be adapted to multiple deposits and commodities. Risks that are associated with the approach concern geological uncertainty, metallurgical variability and social acceptance. The work programme aims to develop the proof-of-concept of total and sustainable mining and processing solutions using case studies in the West Balkans, and subsequently to examine the step-changes that would be required for the technology to be applied globally. The companies involved in the project intend to commercialise the results. Dissemination activities include feedback to European and national policy makers, and the mining industry in general.

Keywords: rapid sustainable and innovative mining solutions
Monsoons and climate change: roles of atmospheric and oceanic processes (MONSOON)

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: Individual Fellowships (H2020-MSCA-IF-2017, 2017)
Start date: 2018-11-01
End date: 2022-11-01
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 195454.8
EU funding (EUR): 195454.8
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Monsoons affect more than half the world’s population yet the dynamics of monsoons are poorly understood. Climate models struggle to accurately simulate monsoons and projections of how these circulations will respond to climate change are highly uncertain. A transformed understanding of monsoon dynamics has the potential to improve both climate models and predictions of how this key feature of the climate system will respond to global warming. This project will use idealised climate-model simulations to quantify the impacts of clouds, water vapour, carbon dioxide, and ocean heat transport on changes in monsoon dynamics. These atmospheric and oceanic processes have recently been shown to affect the Hadley circulation and midlatitude storm tracks, but their influences on monsoons are unknown. To isolate and quantify the effect of each process on the monsoon response to climate change, a novel set of simulations employing the radiation-locking technique and a simple dynamic representation of ocean heat transport will be performed. This reduced-complexity methodology will deliver a greatly improved mechanistic understanding of monsoons under climate change. The enhanced knowledge of monsoon dynamics that results from this project will ultimately lead to improvements in climate models and to better predictions of how monsoons will change in the future, with important benefits for societies around the world.

Keywords: monsoons,atmospheric dynamics,clouds,water vapour,carbon dioxide,ocean heat transport,radiative transfer
Electronic generation and detection in nanoelectronic devices at the picosecond scale (UltraFastNano)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: Future and Emerging Technologies (FET)
Theme: EIC Pathfinder
Destination: Novel ideas for radically new technologies
Action type: Research and Innovation actions
Countries involved: Germany,Sweden,France,France,United Kingdom
Call: FET-Open Challenging Current Thinking (H2020-FETOPEN-2018-2019-2020-01, 2019)
Start date: 2020-01-01
End date: 2024-12-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 3330237.5
EU funding (EUR): 3307613.75
Participants: 6
Project status: SIGNED

A key figure of merit of quantum technologies is the ratio between two characteristic times: the (decoherence) time during which a quantum state remains well defined and the time it takes for operating the device. Most technologies inherently work at the nano-second scale, hence concentrate on fighting decoherence processes. The goal of UltraFastNano is to pioneer new concepts at the crossroads between quantum optics and solid-state nanoelectronics at the pico-second scale, almost three orders of magnitude faster than other quantum technologies. Using fermionic flying excitations created with pico-second controlled voltage pulses at cryogenics temperatures (10 mK), we envision achieving full control of quantum excitations that propagate through electronic devices. A key deliverable of UltraFastNano is (i) the demonstration of the first electronic flying quantum bit, a paradigm-shifting approach to quantum computing and quantum communication. Besides, such a technology would enable major new applications such as (ii) electronic sources and detectors that operate at the picosecond scale; (iii) picosecond optoelectronic devices that convert between electronic and photon pulses; (iv) beyond state-of-the-art metrological measurement of the ampere. To achieve this vision, UltraFastNano will establish a unique unprecedented platform for creating, manipulating and detecting quasi-particles excitations at the single-electron level in semiconductor heterostructures. We will unlock two major technological bottlenecks: a picosecond on-demand coherent single particle source and the single-shot detection of propagating excitations at the discrete charge level. UltraFastNano gathers a team with complementary expertise in quantum nano-electronics, optics, nano-fabrication, microwave electronics, cryogenics, theoretical physics, applied mathematics and software engineering. The partners are internationally recognised for having played a key role in the emergence of the field.

Keywords: quantum nanoelectronics,single electron transport,semi conductor heterostructures,flying quantum bits
QUAntum Black hOle DYnamics and Phenomenology (QUABODYP)

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: Physics
Countries involved: Italy,Canada
Call: Individual Fellowships (H2020-MSCA-IF-2018, 2018)
Start date: 2020-09-01
End date: 2023-08-31
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 255768.0
EU funding (EUR): 255768.0
Participants: 2
Project status: SIGNED

The aim of this proposal is to tackle the implementation of dynamics in quantum gravity in the context of a black hole geometry in order to address long-standing fundamental theoretical issues, and study the possibility that related quantum effects could be observable by next-generation detectors. The research methodology is based on two approaches to be carried out in parallel since complementary. The first line of research is more closely related to the Loop Quantum Gravity framework and it relies on a novel approach to implement symmetry reduction at the quantum level, yielding a more tractable quantum dynamics for a spherical black hole geometry, while none of the fundamental structures of the full theory are lost. The second line is based on the investigation of the new physical degrees of freedom that arise in presence of a boundary and the central role of conformal field theory in their description, and it is related to field theory techniques employed in the context of gauge/gravity duality. We shall apply and combine these new ideas and methods to investigate the black hole evaporation process, the fate of classical singularities and to extract phenomenology through gravitational waves physics techniques. Since the most energetic astrophysical events in the universe might carry the signature of quantum gravity effects, the potential theoretical and observational implications of the project outcomes will contribute to enhance EU scientific excellence in the field. The proposed programme requires a cross-fertilization of expertise from several areas of theoretical physics and will thereby diversify the competences of both the researcher and the host groups, as well as expand their respective networks of collaborators. This action prepares the fellow for a more permanent position by endowing him with crucial opportunities to train his mentoring, communication and networking skills and, ultimately, by allowing him to develop his own research programme.

Keywords: non perturbative quantum gravity,quantum black hole,information paradox,quantum gravity phenomenology
Water/human rights beyond the human? Indigenous water ontologies, plurilegal encounters and interlegal translation (RIVERS)

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: Spain,Spain
Call: ERC Starting Grant (ERC-2018-STG, 2018)
Start date: 2019-05-01
End date: 2025-04-30
Duration (months): 72.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1498446.0
EU funding (EUR): 1498446.0
Participants: 2
Project status: SIGNED

RIVERS’s main challenge is to produce ground-breaking knowledge, from an empirical, interdisciplinary and dialoguing perspective, about the contentions and challenges intrinsic to reconceptualising human rights with different ways of understanding and relating to water. Worldwide, indigenous peoples are mobilising against the neoliberalisation of nature, demonstrating radically different ways of knowing, being and living. At the same time, in 2010 the UN acknowledged water as a human right, while in 2017 New Zealand, India and Colombia established ground-breaking legal precedents by granting rivers human rights. RIVERS’s overarching research question is: To what extent can international human rights law come to grips with plurilegal water realities? This project engages with one of the most pressing questions of this century: the relationship between humans and nature. RIVERS tackles two intertwined core objectives: 1) analysing different ways of knowing and relating to water and life among indigenous peoples and their understanding of its (potential) violation by extractive projects; 2) discussing the contributions, challenges and pitfalls of interlegal translation of differing water natures in plurilegal encounters at domestic and international levels. RIVERS will develop a multi-sited analysis and empirical case-studies in three contexts: Colombia, Nepal and the UN human rights protection system. Through the lens of legal pluralism, this will foreground competing political and legal water realities that interrogate dominant understandings of the modern world. RIVERS will address two interrelated research challenges: 1) indigenous visions/practices: beyond water as a natural resource and human right; 2) the UN human rights system: towards counter-hegemonic water knowledge production. This project will pioneer new ways of thinking about water beyond the modern divides of nature/culture, providing clues about future paths towards reconceptualising human rights.

Keywords: human rights,legal anthropology,human right to water,indigenous peoples,legal pluralism,extractivism,natural resources,ontological turn,decolonial theories