Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
CAMS EvOlution (CAMEO)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness
Programme: Digital, Industry and Space
Theme: Space
Destination: Open Strategic Autonomy in Developing, Deploying and Using Global Space-Based Infrastructures, Services, Applications and Data
Action type: Research and Innovation actions
Countries involved: United Kingdom,Norway,Spain,Netherlands,Sweden,Belgium,France,Finland,Germany,Czechia,Poland,Denmark,Italy
Call: Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service evolution (HORIZON-CL4-2021-SPACE-01, 2021)
Start date: 2023-01-01
End date: 2025-12-31
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 7499953.0
EU funding (EUR): 7499952.5
Participants: 23
Project status: SIGNED

Monitoring the composition of the atmosphere is a key objective of the European Union’s flagship Space programme Copernicus, with the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) providing free and continuous data and information on atmospheric composition. The CAMS Service Evolution (CAMEO) project will enhance the quality and efficiency of the CAMS service and help CAMS to better respond to policy needs such as air pollutant and greenhouse gases monitoring, the fulfilment of sustainable development goals, and sustainable and clean energy. CAMEO will help prepare CAMS for the uptake of forthcoming satellite data, including Sentinel-4, -5 and 3MI, and advance the aerosol and trace gas data assimilation methods and inversion capacity of the global and regional CAMS production systems. CAMEO will develop methods to provide uncertainty information for users of CAMS emissions, policy, solar radiation and deposition products in response to prominent requests from current CAMS users. CAMEO will contribute to the medium- to long-term evolution of the CAMS production systems and products. The transfer of developments from CAMEO into subsequent improvements of CAMS operational service elements is a main driver for the project and is the main pathway to impact for CAMEO. The CAMEO consortium, led by ECMWF, the entity entrusted to operate CAMS, includes several CAMS partners thus allowing CAMEO developments to be carried out directly within the CAMS production systems and facilitating the transition of CAMEO results to future upgrades of the CAMS service. This will maximise the impact and outcomes of CAMEO as it can make full use of the existing CAMS infrastructure for data sharing, data delivery and communication, thus supporting policymakers, business and citizens with enhanced atmospheric environmental information.

Keywords: service improvement,uncertainty information,uptake of novel space observations,data assimilation,air quality,global aerosol,data assimilation of atmospheric composition
Tracing Records and Views of European Literature on Zoroastrians of Iran in the Late Modern Age (TRAVELS)

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: Social Sciences and Humanities
Countries involved: Italy,Canada,United Kingdom
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2024 (HORIZON-MSCA-2024-PF-01, 2024)
Start date: 2025-09-01
End date: 2028-08-31
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 341683.08
EU funding (EUR): 341683.08
Participants: 3
Project status: SIGNED

The TRAVELS project addresses a critical gap in Zoroastrian studies by reconstructing the history of the Zoroastrian community in Iran from 1773 to 1854. While research has typically focused on Antiquity or the Contemporary Age, the Middle and Modern Ages remain underexplored due to a lack of sources, and this period is particularly obscure as Iranian Zoroastrians ceased official contact with their Indian brethren and faced persecution. However, this era coincides with heightened European interest in the Middle East. Consequently, dozens of European travellers meticulously documented their journeys through Iran, providing crucial insights into the Zoroastrian community. Through an innovative multidisciplinary approach - integrating history, religious studies, gender studies, anthropology, and both Iranian and European studies - TRAVELS seeks to bridge this gap by analysing 52 diaries to uncover crucial details about community’s geography, traditions, and interactions, as well as European perceptions of this minority. To balance the Eurocentric standpoint, TRAVELS will consider Parsi records and the scant Zoroastrian Iranian literature of the time. Indeed, despite the halt in official ties, Iranian Zoroastrians initiated a new wave of migration abroad due to oppression, a trend that continues today with Zoroastrians moving to Western countries. TRAVELS also aims to link the Modern Age with the contemporary world, by incorporating narratives of today’s Canadian and British Zoroastrian communities into the historical discourse through interviews and archival research. The immediate outcome will be a reconstruction of the history of Zoroastrians in Iran, attentive to internal diversity, such as gender and social disparities, and placing this history within a global context. From a long-term perspective, by leveraging European sources and a multidisciplinary approach, TRAVELS aims to introduce innovative methodologies and research lines into Zoroastrian studies.

Keywords: zoroastrianism european travel literature religious minority iran modern age zoroastrianism 19th century
DESIGNED CELLULAR CIRCUITS TO PREVENT THE EXHAUSTION OF THERAPEUTIC CAR T-CELLS (T-FITNESS-HOP-ON)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Widening Participation and Strengthening the European Research Area
Programme: Widening participation and spreading excellence
Theme: Improved access to Excellence
Destination: Improved access to Excellence
Action type: Research and Innovation actions
Countries involved: Germany,Slovenia
Call: Hop on Facility (HORIZON-WIDERA-2023-ACCESS-06, 2023)
Duration (months): 27.0
Total project cost (EUR): 598353.75
EU funding (EUR): 598353.75
Participants: 2
Project status: SIGNED

Cancer immunotherapy based on chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-engineered T-cells represents a highly efficient therapy and a paradigm shift as living drugs. This platform allows further improvement of therapeutic cells and circuits that guide them. T-FITNESS project addressed the problem of T cell exhaustion aiming to enable antitumor T cells to become refractory to exhaustion. T-FITNESS proposed an innovative sensing of exhaustion-specific miRNAs (ex-miRNA) and transcription factors (exTF) to introduce downregulation of exTF by CRISPR-mediated genomic integration of miRNA target sites and also included the development of a cGMP-compliant manufacturing process. T-FITNESS-HOP-ON aims to achieve the same goal by introducing additional strategies based on protein design and synthetic biology tools. Here inhibitory TFs will be designed to prevent T cell exhaustion where they will be regulated either by external signals or through an autonomous ex-miRNA regulation. An innovative, single-transcript sensing of ex-miRNA and TFinh upregulation will be implemented. Additionally, CAR constructs will be designed to enable the rest of T-cells upon the onset of exhaustion and tested in T-cells and in a preclinical model. The proposed designs have a small genetic footprint and will not require genome editing, which could enable robust clinical translation and could be useful as a technological platform for therapy of other types of disease. The introduction of an additional widening partner, who brings new expertise and ideas will be beneficial both for the existing consortium as well as for the new partner, to improve dissemination, visibility, scientific excellence, facilitate clinical and industrial translation, strengthen the links with international partners and improve career prospects.

Keywords: cancer immunotherapy synthetic biology of mammalian cells protein design micro rna based regulation alternative splicing
Fully Biocompatible Intrabody Nanoscale Communication System to Foster Novel In Body Diagnostics and Monitoring Systems (BeNiFIt)

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: Information Science and Engineering
Countries involved: Spain,Norway
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2023 (HORIZON-MSCA-2023-PF-01, 2023)
Start date: 2024-04-01
End date: 2026-03-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 165312.96
EU funding (EUR): 165312.96
Participants: 3
Project status: SIGNED

Early detection is crucial in improving treatment outcomes and alleviating the burden of chronic diseases, as emphasized by the EU Mission: Cancer. In vivo dianosgtic approaches have been shown to eliminate a couple of post-processing stages, but no significant reduction in turnaround delays has been reported, in addition to being costly, bulky, and invasive. The next natural step in innovation would be to reduce turnaround delays from the present best of 10,000 minutes to within a few tens of minutes, a 1000X improvement, which BeNiFIt aims to introduce. The goal of the BeNiFIt project is to show that intra-body nanoscale communications (IBNC) can be used to make in-vivo diagnostics possible. This will pave the way for more advanced early detection and real-time monitoring methods that are minimally invasive, low-cost, and have small turnaround delays. Through BeNiFIt, I will demonstrate the competence of IBNC for in vivo detection of biomarkers with high accuracy by using nanomachines equipped with biosensors. A cooperative sensing approach will be developed to maximize the sensitivity and specificity of the biosensors, thus reducing the number of false positives/negatives caused by the presence of other molecules. In addition, I will design an approach to integrating the sensing and communication hardware to meet the hardware requirements of nanomachines. A near-field magnetism-based system and passive communication architecture will be implemented to ensure ultra-high safety and energy efficiency. Lastly, an open-source system-level simulator will be developed, spanning microscopic to macroscopic scales, to analyze the impact of the design choices on the system’s performance. The KPI targets of BeNiFIt include >95% detection accuracy and a 10X reduction in treatment costs, besides the 1000X reduction in turnaround delays. These outstanding performances are set to disrupt the healthcare industry.

Keywords: nanonetworks,inbody communications,intrabody communications,wireless sensor networks,passive communication,
Computational design of sliding ferroelectrics and multiferroics from van der Waals materials (FERRERO)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Consolidator grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Materials Engineering
Panel description: Advanced materials development: performance enhancement, modelling, large -scale preparation, modification, tailoring, optimisation, novel  and combined use of materials, etc.
Countries involved: Netherlands
Call: ERC CONSOLIDATOR GRANTS (ERC-2024-COG, 2024)
Start date: 2025-06-01
End date: 2030-05-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2000000.0
EU funding (EUR): 2000000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

The increasing needs of our society and the growing energy consumption call for inventing ultra-fast and power-saving electronic devices capable of integrating different functionalities in the same physical space. Ferroelectric materials, whose electric polarization can be switched reversibly, seem to be pivotal for the development of electronics, offering non-volatile, high-speed writing at low voltage and high endurance. However, they should also enable a non-destructive readout, for example, via a spin-orbit or a magnetic detection of state. Multiferroics with coupled ferroelectric and magnetic orders seem optimal for the electric writing and magnetic read-out but they are very scarce. With FERRERO, I will design sliding ferroelectrics and multiferroics that can be artificially created by stacking van der Waals (vdW) materials. While 2D materials offer unlimited possibilities of design, the mechanism of ferroelectric switching via interlayer sliding of two monolayers ensures very low switching barriers and room-temperature operability. In addition, vertical stacking of 2D magnets could give rise to magnetoelectric coupling allowing for the control of the magnetic state via electric polarization. The twisting of two layers with respect to each other induces a moiré superlattice with strongly correlated bands, providing an extra knob to control ferroelectricity, spin-orbit effects, and magnetism. I plan to (i) develop and implement several computational tools and combine them all together in the open-source publicly available code to enable fast and accurate calculations of moiré materials, (ii) simulate several non-twisted and twisted vdW bilayers to understand the mechanism of ferroelectric switching and unveil the strength of the magnetoelectric coupling, and (iii) explore sliding ferroelectric and multiferroics for electronic devices allowing for energy-efficient and ultra-fast data writing, and the construction of cascaded circuitry.

Keywords: 2d materials,ferroelectrics,multiferroics,magnetoelectric coupling,spintronics,twistronics,first principles calculations,moir materials
Novel gut-stable peptides and drug-delivery systems - possible treatment for IBD (NanoPep4IBD)

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: Austria
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2022 (HORIZON-MSCA-2022-PF-01, 2022)
Start date: 2023-09-01
End date: 2025-08-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 183600.96
EU funding (EUR): 183600.96
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) affect more than 2 million residents in Europe. Currently, there is no cure for IBD, and treatment focuses on alleviating symptoms. Injured/compromised mucosal barrier and GI biofilms are common pathophysiological deviations in IBD. The overall aim of this project is to develop gut-stable peptides effective against biofilms, peptides suitable for wound-healing treatment, and nanocarrier systems for targeted delivery. In particular, I will focus on developing new antibiofilm peptides, based on the existent cathelicidins, and also develop GI wound-healing peptides based on the trefoil factor family (TFF). Cathelicidins and TFF peptides occur naturally in humans, and defects in these response systems can lead to GI diseases. Hence, in this project I aim to: (i) design, synthesize and characterise novel gut-stable antibiofilm and wound-healing peptides, and (ii) develop nanoparticle drug-delivery systems for their targeted application. Based on peptidomimetic synthesis, I will produce peptides containing unnatural amino acids, loop and helix mimetics, and also retroinverso analogues. Chitosan-coated liposomal and silica nanoparticles will be used for targeted colon treatment, as multifunctional systems: nanocarriers protect the peptides, chitosan enables mucoadhesive release, and chitosan has also beneficial anti-inflammatory, wound-healing and antimicrobial effects on its own. High regioselectivity and limited off-target effects can be achieved by using gut-stable peptides targeting local sites of inflammation, compromised gut epithelium and biofilms, since they are too large to cross the gut barrier. Orally administered peptide drugs targeting colonic tissues represent a highly innovative and safe route in treating GI disorders.

Keywords: inflammation bowel diseases,drug delivery,liposomes,mesoporous silica nanoparticles,cathelicidins,trefoil factor family peptides,peptidomimetics
Life-inspired physical feedback coupling in multidimensional hydrogels (DIMENSION)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Materials Engineering
Panel description: Advanced materials development: performance enhancement, modelling, large -scale preparation, modification, tailoring, optimisation, novel  and combined use of materials, etc.
Countries involved: Finland
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): 1500000.0
EU funding (EUR): 1500000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SUSPENDED

Towards the new frontier of self-regulated, autonomous, and adaptive synthetic materials, DIMENSION aims to bring a breakthrough by introducing coupled physical feedback loops in multidimensional hydrogels. Physical feedback mechanisms allow remote powering and interplay with the environmental stimuli and have proven to be instrumental in achieving groundbreaking material functionalities. However, the state-of-the-art physical feedback systems are all limited to single negative feedback loops within a predefined dimensionality. Inspired by the complex responses regulated by multi-component coupled feedbacks in biological systems, I envisage unprecedented functionalities enabled by the new concept in DIMENSION. The grand challenges to construct physical feedback coupling lie in implementing new feedback mechanisms in responsive materials and interfacing different feedback mechanisms to form coupling. Herein, I propose to develop new positive feedback mechanisms based on scattering enhanced absorption in hydrogels, supported by my recent discovery, which will be interfaced with a negative feedback loop to construct coupled feedback loops. DIMENSION will create hydrogel systems fuelled by a constant laser beam, and synergy of optical excitation and gels' response will result in steady states or robust oscillations of temperature, allowing sensing of external stimuli and local enhancement of response. The feedback coupling will enable 3 new model systems with multidimensional geometries: (1) 1D adaptive motility in soft devices, (2) 2D mechano-training in bilayer films, and (3) 3D multidirectional adaptive sensors. DIMENSION will provide new design routes for coupled feedback loops in soft materials across multidimensional geometries. The impact of DIMENSION will be far-reaching beyond self-regulated and adaptive materials, providing implications for embodied intelligence, artificial skin, human-machine interfaces, and bio-inspired actuators.

Keywords: hydrogels,feedback,life inspired,light responsive,soft matter,adaptive
Cell-free synthesis and assembly of biomolecular condensates: Engineering properties, functions and regulation (SYNSEMBL)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Biotechnology and Biosystems E ngineering
Panel description: Biotechnology using all organisms , biotechnology for environment  and food applications, applied plant and animal sciences , bioengineering and synthetic biology , biomass and biofuels , biohazards
Countries involved: Germany
Call: ERC STARTING GRANTS (ERC-2022-STG, 2022)
Start date: 2023-09-01
End date: 2028-08-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1500000.0
EU funding (EUR): 1500000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Compartmentalization is a defining characteristic of life and has the potential to enable and improve engineered manufacturing routes in biotechnology. Many biomolecules like proteins and RNA have the ability to spontaneously cluster in molecularly dense, phase-separated liquid-like assemblies, termed biomolecular condensates. Biomolecular condensates are promising as synthetic compartments in cell-free reactions and living cells because they could provide programmable, self-assembled spatial organization and rapidly appear or dissolve on demand. However, we are still lacking key engineering and characterization tools, a fundamental understanding of how the unique material properties influence internal biochemistry, and strategies to regulate these dynamic molecular assemblies. I have recently discovered that different condensate-forming proteins can be synthesized and assemble into liquid-like droplets in cell-free transcription and translation reactions run in a custom-designed microfluidic device. This project will pioneer cell-free synthesis for the engineering and characterization of biomolecular condensates, and engineer new synthetic compartmentalization strategies for cell-free systems and living cells. First, developing and taking advantage of a highly controlled microfluidic cell-free environment we will generate and characterize new synthetic compartments with tailored properties. Secondly, we will specifically target molecules and reactions into the condensate phase and systematically study how condensate properties influence biological functions. Finally, we will implement dynamic feedback control mechanisms that can autonomously adjust presence and functions of synthetic compartments in cell-free systems and in cells. SYNSEMBL will break new grounds for applications of biomolecular condensates in material science and synthetic biology.

Keywords: cell free synthetic biology,coacervate compartments,biomolecular condensates
Moving from whole genome cfDNA methylation to a PCR-based liquid biopsy assay for detecting high-risk atherosclerotic plaques (U-BiomarCARE)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Proof of concept grants
Action type: ERC actions
Countries involved: Netherlands
Call: ERC PROOF OF CONCEPT GRANTS (ERC-2023-POC, 2023)
Start date: 2023-07-01
End date: 2024-12-31
Duration (months): 18.0
Total project cost (EUR): 150000.0
EU funding (EUR): 150000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

General practitioners and cardiologists are faced every day with challenging decisions on whom to refer for diagnostics of coronary artery disease (CAD) as sign and symptoms of cardiac ischemia require immediate action. Diagnosis of CAD is key as ischemic heart disease accounts for 45% of deaths in females and 39% in males in the European Union. Yet, diagnosis of CAD in women is regularly delayed and often unrecognized. As the main pathology underlying CAD, it is essential to understand atherosclerotic plaque biology. In recent years, my research group and others have identified clear sex differences in the atherosclerotic plaque morphology and its (epi)genetic regulation. One consequence is that female plaques are more difficult to detect than male plaques, especially those which cause symptoms. As part of the ERC UCARE project, we uncovered a plaque-specific epigenetic signal in cell-free DNA from plasma of women with CAD. This signal consisted of hypomethylated regions specific for plaques that can be detected in plasma cell-free DNA. Our methods thus far have been focused on whole genome sequencing analyses. Yet, for studying the predictive value of these regions in large cohorts of patients with CAD, as well as exploring commercial potential, we need to develop a more specific methodology. Our aim in this current U-BiomarCARE project is to investigate if the methylation status of plaque-specific regions can be detected in plasma with a PCR-based method. Once we prove that this methodology is reproducible and comparable to whole genome DNA methylation sequencing, we can perform large biomarker studies in both women and men suspected of heart disease and explore potential commercialization of plaque-specific cell-free DNA methylation profiles to accurately detect CAD. This will be a game changer for the healthcare sector as it will allow a specific and timely detection of dangerous atherosclerotic plaques both in men and women.