Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Three-Dimensional Multilayered Epithelial Morphodynamics (3D-MEMorpho)

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: Physics
Countries involved: Germany
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2024 (HORIZON-MSCA-2024-PF-01, 2024)
Start date: 2025-10-01
End date: 2027-09-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 202125.12
EU funding (EUR): 202125.12
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

How the organismal morphology is specified, maintained, and evolving is an intriguing open question of developmental biology and biophysics. In this proposal, I aim to unravel the physical mechanisms underlying the three-dimensional (3D) morphodynamics of epithelium. Drosophila wing disc is a good model organism for this problem because it undergoes complex 3D morphogenetic processes from larval to pupal stage which are highly related to gene expression, hormone level, cell active behaviors, and mechanical forces. The correct sequential folding, unfolding, and eversion of wing disc have been observed as exquisite and elaborated processes while the underlying physical mechanism is still unclear. We will establish a biomechanical theoretical framework with a novel hybrid vertex-continuum model, and develop advanced numerical simulation methods to mimic wing disc three-dimensional morphodynamics. A morphometric analysis method and statistical quantifications will be developed and applied, for the first time, to quantitatively compare the simulation and experiments performed by my collaborators.

Keywords: three dimensional morphogenesis biomechanical modeling cell ecm interaction ecm remodeling
Strengthening Manila clam's resilience to climate change-related stress and pathogens (SHIELD)

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: Environment and Geosciences
Countries involved: Italy,Portugal
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2024 (HORIZON-MSCA-2024-PF-01, 2024)
Start date: 2026-02-03
End date: 2028-02-02
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 193643.28
EU funding (EUR): 193643.28
Participants: 2
Project status: SIGNED

SHIELD addresses a critical challenge in aquaculture: improving the resilience of Manila clams (Ruditapes philippinarum) to environmental stressors like Perkinsus infections and heatwaves. These stressors have caused widespread mortality in clam populations, threatening the sustainability of this important industry. Through a combination of laboratory and field experiments, SHIELD seeks to investigate two key hypotheses that aim to tackle these challenges from a new perspective. The first hypothesis focuses on the transgenerational effects of Perkinsus infections, examining how parental exposure to the pathogen may affect their offspring's health, growth, and survival. This area remains largely unexplored, and SHIELD aims to shed light on how the effects of infections can be passed down through offspring. By using advanced genomic and epigenomic tools, SHIELD will examine how these changes are inherited and influence the overall fitness of future clam populations. The second hypothesis examines how early microbial exposure can influence the clam’s ability to cope with environmental challenges. Hatcheries typically raise clams in sterile conditions, which might leave them more vulnerable to stressors later in life. SHIELD will test whether exposing clams to a microbiota-enriched environment early in their development can lead to better growth, disease resistance, and survival outcomes when facing real-world stressors like heatwaves and pathogens. By integrating advanced genomic techniques and insights from fieldwork, SHIELD will provide a deeper understanding of how microbiota, pathogens, and environmental stressors interact. This research could offer valuable insights that support more sustainable aquaculture practices, helping ensure the resilience of Manila clam farming in a changing climate.

Keywords: manila clam,environmental stressors,climate change,heatwaves,marine pathogens,microbiota,perkinsus,infectious diseases
Supervised mechanisms for locomotor learning in the cerebellum (SuperLoco)

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: Portugal
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2023 (HORIZON-MSCA-2023-PF-01, 2023)
Start date: 2024-10-01
End date: 2026-09-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 156778.56
EU funding (EUR): 156778.56
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Motor learning is essential to move in a continuously changing environment, but the underlying neural circuit mechanisms are still poorly understood. This is critical for locomotion, a fundamental but complex behavior, which requires precise control of whole-body movements at the same time. The cerebellum plays a key role in motor learning, supposedly generating corrective movements through supervised error-based mechanisms in response to perturbation. For simple tasks, climbing fibers originating in the Inferior olive drive supervised learning, generating changes of cerebellar activity and corrective responses. During locomotion, perturbations cause gait asymmetries, which can be externally induced in a split-belt treadmill with belts running at different speeds. The host laboratory developed a split-belt treadmill to study locomotor adaptation in mice, showing that it is similar to humans, occurs through motor corrections with complex spatiotemporal dynamics, and is driven by the cerebellum. However, the underlying neural bases are unknown. SuperLoco aims to identify supervised mechanisms for locomotor learning, exploiting the synergy between cutting-edge technologies to interact with neural circuits and computational neuroscience tools. Specifically, we will: (i) record climbing fiber and cerebellar activity during locomotor learning in mice with high-yield electrophysiology, (ii) simulate locomotor learning in a bioinspired spiking neural network of the cerebellum with climbing fiber-supervised plasticity, (iii) optogenetically stimulate climbing fibers to induce locomotor learning based on model predictions. Our main hypothesis is that the timing of climbing fiber signals determines changes of cerebellar activity through supervised plasticity driving locomotor learning. SuperLoco outcomes will shed light on neural mechanisms for complex whole-body movements, fundamental in neuroscience and crucial for treatment of movement disorders.

Keywords: motor learning locomotion cerebellum neural recordings spiking neural networks supervised plasticity optogenetics
Sentencing architecture: Building a decision-making matrix (Sentrix)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: The Soci al World and Its Interactions
Panel description: Sociology, social psychology, education  sciences , communication  studies
Countries involved: Slovenia
Call: ERC STARTING GRANTS (ERC-2024-STG, 2024)
Start date: 2025-01-01
End date: 2029-12-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1598495.0
EU funding (EUR): 1598495.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

The act of sentencing represents a critical juncture at which the power of the state to punish intersects with the personal freedoms of the individual. It is governed by an intricate set of decision-making dynamics, for which we lack a cohesive understanding. This ground-breaking project seeks to fill this gap by introducing a fresh perspective rooted in choice architecture, aiming to devise a comprehensive theoretical matrix that systematically captures the multi-dimensional nature of sentencing decisions. Employing the notion of the decision-making environment, the project seeks to map out the "sentencing environment" – a concept that includes both well-researched elements like judicial discretion and less examined factors such as procedural nuances and habitual decisions. The objective is to move beyond the dichotomy of legal vs. non-legal factors, using choice architecture in a non-traditional way: not to guide decisions but to understand the sentencing landscape and its mechanics. The methodology encompasses a metanalysis of existing literature supplemented by workshops, and testing the initial findings through courtroom observation, interviews, and experiments with practitioners to develop a typology of sentencing frameworks. These will be tested against real-world practices and subjected to computer simulations using agent-based modeling, providing a visual representation of the sentencing environment. The project is pioneering for several reasons. Firstly, it unites fragmented research into a holistic picture, employing an interdisciplinary approach that promises greater transparency in sentencing. Secondly, it uses visualization and simulation as tools for communication and strategic reform, potentially influencing legal and policy directions. Lastly, it offers insights into how various sentencing dimensions interact with human decision-making, contributing to a fairer justice system and a deeper understanding of legal behaviour.

Keywords: punishment,sentencing,decision making,judges,prosecutors
Thermite reactions assisting satellite demise (THREAD)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Innovative Europe
Programme: The European Innovation Council (EIC)
Theme: EIC Pathfinder
Destination: Open to supporting projects in all areas of science, technology,...
Action type: EIC actions
Countries involved: Italy,Portugal,Germany,France
Call: EIC Pathfinder Open (HORIZON-EIC-2024-PATHFINDEROPEN-01, 2024)
Start date: 2025-05-01
End date: 2028-10-31
Duration (months): 42.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2919176.25
EU funding (EUR): 2919176.25
Participants: 10
Project status: SIGNED

This project develops a new method to manage the decommissioning of satellites through the use of on-board heat generation systems based on non-explosive thermite charges, called thermite-for-demise (T4D). Thermites are mixtures of metal and metal oxide which can undergo spontaneous exothermic reactions even in vacuum, according to composition and production. Pioneering projects have demonstrated that T4D may be used to damage space components and support their demise during atmospheric reentry. However, its real world application needs the filling of knowledge gaps and practical problems: (A) the powdered form is not the best way to obtain localized reliable heat release; (B) the expected life cycle in a space mission has never been considered; (C) a strategy for T4D use is not available. The project targets the maturation of T4D technology in three major steps. (1) New thermite-based composite materials granting thermite a structural consistency will be developed and their behavior characterized. Environmental stress tests will secure their use across satellite lifecycle. (2) With these building blocks, heat-generating shapes and devices will be developed, supported by the experience of a large spacecraft integrator. The heat transfer behavior of thermite-based objects will be modeled and validated under representative reentry conditions, in hypersonic wind tunnel. Results will support the update of system-level reentry simulation tools and the definition of application strategy, further validated on demise test in wind tunnel with hardware of representative or simplified geometry from the selected use-cases, supplied by a space company. (3) All previous outcomes will support a cost-benefit analysis for T4D industrial implementation and its long term evolution. The results of the project will demonstrate with new experiments and modeling approaches that T4D has the potential to become an engineering standard for the space community.

Keywords: design for demise,exothermic reactions,mechanical activation,aging,space environment
Adopting ISO 82304-2 and a trusted EU mHealth label for a single market that enables patients, citizens, health professionals, systems and authorities to benefit from a healthy supply of useful apps. (Label2Enable)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness
Programme: Health
Theme: Health
Destination: Maintaining an innovative, sustainable and globally competitive health industry
Action type: Coordination and support actions
Countries involved: Netherlands,Belgium,Germany,Spain,Croatia,Italy,Lithuania
Call: Promoting a trusted mHealth label in Europe: uptake of technical specifications for quality and reliability of health and wellness apps (HORIZON-HLTH-2021-IND-07, 2021)
Start date: 2022-05-01
End date: 2024-06-30
Duration (months): 26.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1999957.5
EU funding (EUR): 1999957.0
Participants: 15
Project status: CLOSED

There is a growing recognition that health and wellness apps need to play a much stronger role in health care systems, self-care and health prevention than they do today. However, health care systems, health professionals, patients and citizens lack means to adequately assess the quality and reliability of the many apps to choose from, for every purpose, in each app store. Suppliers experience the varying national approval processes as confusing and unclear as to what is expected and the depth of evidence that is required by each approval body. We intend to break through the impasse by leveraging the golden opportunity of the publication in July 2021 of the ISO 82304?2 Technical Specification (TS) and its health app quality label. Work is now needed to turn this globally endorsed quality assessment and health app quality label into the EU assessment and EU mHealth label, embed it within the approval and reimbursement processes of European countries and foster cross-country alignment of these approval processes. The objective of Label2Enable is threefold: achieve trust, use and adoption. We will pursue: 1. trust with an EU certification scheme that results in consistent compliant inclusive app assessments 2. use with: - a more detailed health app quality report that enables health professionals to recommend apps and insurers to speed up decisions on reimbursements - supporting communication that enables all patients, citizens and carers to use the label in considering health apps - social experimentation to promote app stores, app libraries and other routinely used trusted sources that (seek to) offer health apps to effectively publish the label alongside them 3. adoption of the TS and cross-country recognition with pilots, use stories, advocacy, mass communication and targeted multi-stakeholder engagement, affordable app assessments and a sustainable non-profit entity that will maintain the scheme, accredit app assessors and promote the TS after the project.
Flexible Attosecond Soliton Transients for Extreme Resolution (FASTER)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Fundamental Constituents of Matter
Panel description: Particle, nuclear, plasma, atomic, molecular, gas, and optical physics
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call: ERC STARTING GRANTS (ERC-2024-STG, 2024)
Start date: 2025-06-01
End date: 2030-05-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2453025.0
EU funding (EUR): 2453025.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Ultrafast laser pulses allow us to follow fundamental processes such as chemical reactions and electron transport at their natural timescale. Because optical (ultraviolet, visible or infrared) laser sources have not been able to reach the attosecond pulse duration required to investigate the fastest events, ultrafast science has moved to extreme-ultraviolet (XUV) wavelengths. However, XUV photon energies are far higher than the scale of chemically and electronically relevant valence-electron excitations, so XUV spectroscopy is at most only indirectly sensitive to some of the most important interactions. Furthermore, the low pulse energy of attosecond XUV sources has so far prevented experiments with true attosecond time resolution. In FASTER, I will push far beyond the limits of conventional laser sources and bring attosecond time resolution to the optical domain. Using advanced optical soliton dynamics in gas-filled hollow capillary fibres, I will create ultrabroadband supercontinuum probe pulses and wavelength-tuneable pump pulses from the vacuum ultraviolet (100 nm) to the near infrared (1000 nm) with both attosecond duration and sufficient pulse energy for attosecond pump-probe studies. Using the flexibility of soliton dynamics and all-optical spatio-spectral manipulation, I will tailor these pulses to specific experiments. I will then take one step further and develop two-dimensional spectroscopy with the same approach, combining ultrabroadband optical attosecond pulses with the ability to identify different excitation pathways and quantum coherences. In collaboration with expert groups, I will apply these new capabilities to some of the most challenging questions in ultrafast science and directly observe crucial valence-electron interactions with unprecedented time resolution. FASTER aims at the physical limit of optical ultrafast laser pulses and a new regime of ultrafast spectroscopy, opening up entirely new ways of observing the fastest processes in nature.

Keywords: ultrafast optics,ultrafast science,photonics,nonlinear optics,spectroscopy
Minimal Systems for Spatiotemporal Control of Gene Expression as Self-manufacturing Gene Therapeutics (Gene-Self-Expression)

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: 2025-11-01
End date: 2027-10-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 217965.12
EU funding (EUR): 217965.12
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

The development of effective gene therapies is hindered by limitations in current delivery methods, such as the use of lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) and extracellular vesicles (EVs). We propose a novel approach to overcome these limitations by constructing a self-organizing minimal system capable of producing therapeutic mRNA. Our system leverages the power of lipid membrane compartments to control and regulate gene expression, mimicking the sophisticated spatiotemporal control found in living cells. Our research will focus on three main objectives: (1) investigating the activity of transcriptional and translational machinery in the proximity of lipid membranes, (2) designing and constructing a minimal system that exhibits spatiotemporal self-organization of gene expression, and (3) developing self-manufacturing platforms for the delivery and development of gene therapeutics. By combining expertise in chemistry, biology, physics, and engineering, we aim to create a highly reproducible and efficient system for producing therapeutic mRNA. This will pave the way for the development of safer, more targeted, and more effective gene therapies, ultimately revolutionizing the treatment of various diseases.

Keywords: synthetic biology,bottom up construction of cells,lipid membrane,vesicles,mrna,gene expression
Embedding catalysts in liquid wall flow devices (LiquidWallCat)

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: Chemistry
Countries involved: Spain
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2022 (HORIZON-MSCA-2022-PF-01, 2022)
Start date: 2023-05-01
End date: 2025-04-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 172963.44
EU funding (EUR): 172963.44
Participants: 2
Project status: SIGNED

Flow reactors offer benefits over batch reactions, such as precise control over conditions and high turnover numbers of catalysts through immobilization in packed beds. However, the small dimensions of the flow reactor lead to increased friction between solvent and reactor wall, which causes loss in efficiency. In addition, flow systems are vulnerable to reagents that may foul or clog the system. The host group recently developed microfluidic tubes with ferrofluid walls. The walls are kept in place by a quadrupolar arrangement of magnets, while their liquid nature diminishes the friction at the interface and prevents particles from clogging the system by temporarily expanding the microtube when necessary. In this project, I intend to improve on this system by embedding well-established catalysts immobilized on magnetite nanoparticles into the ferrofluid. This will allow us to achieve the high turnover numbers that are common for flow reactors containing immobilized catalysts, while benefiting from the low-friction and anti-clogging properties of the liquid wall tubes. In addition, I will perform mechanistic analysis of the newly developed flow reactions in liquid wall tubes. This will aid the broader scientific community to further expand the utility of this new technology. As such, the project promises important improvements in the field of flow chemistry. The highly interdisciplinary nature of the project allows me to fully apply my expertise in the field of catalysis, while benefiting from knowledge transfer in microfluidics, in which the host research group has an expertise.

Keywords: flow chemistry,microfluidics,magnetic nanoparticles