Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Providing water for everyone with water-from-air technology (ThinAirWater)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Industrial Leadership
Programme: Innovation in SMEs
Action type: SME instrument
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call: SME instrument (H2020-SMEInst-2018-2020-1, 2018)
Start date: 2018-10-01
End date: 2019-01-31
Duration (months): 4.0
Total project cost (EUR): 71429.0
EU funding (EUR): 50000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Drinking water is becoming an increasingly scarce resource. Of all the options for future drinkable water, harnessing the 140 quadrillion litres of water in the atmosphere represents one of very probable and abundant sources. Clouds and fog in the atmosphere contain more than enough fresh water to sustain every person on earth. With recent cutting-edge developments, an economically viable technology for harvesting this water is becoming available. ThinAir, a start-up has created a material optimised for capturing atmospheric water by enhancing the ability of water condensation through the surface structure optimisation. The technology has been rigorously proven at Imperial College London and is >94% more efficient at condensing and harnessing water vapour than the best currently available alternatives. Our founding team consists of Jonathan Risley (CEO) with a background in biotechnology and management. Samuel Bruggen (CTO) is specialized in biochemistry and with a business innovation masters. Ben Kirk (CSO) holds an MBA from the Imperial Business School and is in charge of the business strategy to commercialisation. We are supported by advisors who give us business guidance and connections in the industry. The ThinAirWater surface technology is currently at a TRL 6 and takes inspiration from the African fogstand beetle. The team have mimicked the beetle to produce a scalable, sustainable and deployable material, which can be implemented within a range of markets to enhance water generation from the atmosphere. The first application is an integration into dehumidifiers to improve on their energy efficiency at water condensation, we later plan to implement this technology to help drive the progression of the atmospheric water generation market for clean drinking water production from the air. To start commercialization, we will launch our technology as a material component in existing Air-to-Water generators, providing an increase in efficiency that enables them to address a wider array of markets and climates, but most importantly increase their yield of water production, whilst bringing down their cost per litre.

Keywords: water,water capture,bio membrane,biomimicry
An integrative approach to unravel the ocean's biological carbon pump (CarbOcean)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Earth system science
Panel description: Physical geography, geology, geophysics, atmospheric sciences, oceanography, climatology, cryology, ecology, global environmental change, biogeochemical cycles, natural resources management
Countries involved: Belgium,France
Call: ERC Starting Grant (ERC-2019-STG, 2019)
Start date: 2021-05-01
End date: 2026-04-30
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1997651.0
EU funding (EUR): 1997651.0
Participants: 3
Project status: SIGNED

The ocean’s biological carbon pump plays a crucial role in storing atmospheric carbon dioxide in the deep ocean, thereby isolating carbon from the atmosphere for decades to centuries. Yet, its capacity to do so is under-constrained and its mechanisms poorly understood. CarbOcean will develop a mechanistic and quantitative understanding of the biological carbon pump using a novel integrative approach that accounts for its two component pumps: (1) the organic carbon pump, which concerns the photosynthetic production of particulate organic carbon, POC, and (2) the carbonate pump, which concerns the production of particulate inorganic carbon, PIC. These pumps have opposite effects on the ocean-atmosphere exchange of carbon dioxide. I will nurture the development of a breakthrough autonomous robotic ocean profiler, uniquely capable of simultaneous observations of PIC and POC fluxes and physicochemical parameters from the well-lit surface ocean through the underlying twilight zone (roughly 100 – 1000 m depth) over a continuum of spatiotemporal scales. The robotic profilers will be deployed in a wide variety of oceanic environments and the collected data will allow investigation of links between the export and sequestration of POC and PIC, examination of pump interconnection, and detection of pump drivers. New parameterizations of carbon flux processes will be developed and implemented in a biogeochemical model. Lastly, the carbon flux data collected will be up-scaled to the global ocean using artificial intelligence approaches, thereby exploiting synergies among various observational platforms, including remote sensing. CarbOcean is a strongly interdisciplinary project, connecting fundamental and applied optical oceanography with biogeochemistry, carbonate chemistry, advanced statistics, and technological development that will allow a quantum leap in understanding the ocean’s biological carbon pump.

Keywords: biological carbon pump,autonomous ocean observations,biogeochemical model,remote sensing
Leveraging the Emergence of Advanced Debt and Equity Risk-financing Solutions for the Hypergrowth of IP-driven SMEs & start-ups (LEADERSHIP4SMEs)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Industrial Leadership
Programme: Innovation in SMEs
Action type: Coordination and support actions
Countries involved: Italy,Austria,Italy,Germany,Romania,Romania,France,France
Call: Closing the finance gap for IPR-driven start-ups and SMEs (H2020-INNOSUP-2020-10, 2020)
Start date: 2020-09-01
End date: 2022-10-31
Duration (months): 26.0
Total project cost (EUR): 999843.75
EU funding (EUR): 999843.75
Participants: 8
Project status: CLOSED

LEADERSHIP4SMEs is an ambitious initiative aiming to support disruptive SMEs and start-ups (SUs) to reinforce and leverage their IPR as an accelerator of growth on the EU single Market and beyond. The project seeks to raise the awareness and change the perception about the importance of IPR of the targeted groups of SMEs and SUs and the financial intermediaries and investors able to offer access to adequate funding to accelerate their growth by overcoming informational asymmetries. A platform endowed with specific tools to strategically manage and position IPR in the Business Model & Plan to attract funding and generate business opportunities will be implemented and will represent the catalyst of collaborations between the members of the community. The best practices in the fields of IPR management, business acceleration and funding will be collected and serve as a foundation for the development of a set of tools and services centered on a better valuation of IPR and aiming to help SMEs and SUs to successfully cross the “valley of death” and engage on the path to sustainable hyper-growth. The platform will also act as an on-line hub for support organizations from IPR, innovation and business support and private and public funding, and aims to better connect them and contribute to increasing cooperation for the benefit of disruptive SMEs and SUs. A database of qualified experts and organizations offering support will be created and their offer will be exposed to potential beneficiaries through a marketplace associated with the platform. The framework will allow to support step by step 15 SMEs and 15 SUs, selected through open calls, to exploit their IPR to raise capital, generate business opportunities and become “hypergrowth” role models. With the support of a community of strategic partners (DIHs, clusters, accelerators …) we will strive to enlarge the support to the larger community of innovative SMEs and foster the adoption of the framework as a growth enhancer.

Keywords: risk financing,venture capital,innovation funding
Thalamic control of Neuroplasticity (SENSORTHALAMUS)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Consolidator grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Neuroscience and Disorders of the Nervous System
Panel description: Nervous system development, homeostasis and ageing, nervous system function and dysfunction, systems neuroscience and modelling, biological basis of cognitive processes and of behaviour, neurological and mental disorders
Countries involved: Spain,Spain
Call: ERC Consolidator Grant (ERC-2014-CoG, 2014)
Start date: 2015-07-01
End date: 2021-02-28
Duration (months): 68.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1966770.78
EU funding (EUR): 1966770.78
Participants: 2
Project status: CLOSED

The cerebral cortex is organized into highly specialized sensory areas. Thus, it is fundamental to understand how these areas acquire and maintain their identity and functional organization. Challenging normal brain development and forcing the brain to the limits of plasticity, offers us the possibility to shed light on these issues. Accordingly, we shall use prenatal sensory deprivation as a model to understand the mechanisms underlying early neuroplasticity, events that could influence the natural organization of sensory cortical areas. Early sensory deprivation produces profound changes in the cortex, provoking the reorganization of both the deprived and the spared cortical territories. Classically, this adaptation is thought to require sensory experience from the intact sensory modalities. However, our recent data from embryonic deprived mice challenge this view, suggesting that a component independent of experience contributes to this reorganization and that the thalamus plays a pivotal role in these events. Hence, we now propose to adopt multidisciplinary and innovative approaches to characterize the structural, genetic and functional rearrangements in the thalamus following embryonic sensory deprivation, and to define the factors and mechanisms that drive cortical specificity. Experimental results from sensory deprived animals in which the thalamus and gene expression is manipulated in vivo, will be integrated to explain when and how neuroplastic cortical adaptations are triggered in the deprived brain. To further understand the rewiring capacity of thalamic neurons and their potential role in sensory restoration, we will adopt a high-risk, high-gain approach to reprogramme nuclei specific thalamic neurons. The novel information obtained will establish how sensory inputs and thalamocortical connections govern cortical activity and architecture, ultimately sculpting perceptual behaviour.

Keywords: thalamus,cortical areas,sensory deprivation,neuroplasticity,spontaneous activity,reprogramming,transgenic mice
Miniature Controller for NANO-meter level Motor POSitioning (NANO-POS)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Industrial Leadership
Programme: Information and Communication Technologies
Action type: SME instrument
Countries involved: Spain
Call: Open Disruptive Innovation Scheme (implemented through the SME instrument) (H2020-SMEINST-1-2014, 2014)
Start date: 2015-05-01
End date: 2015-10-31
Duration (months): 6.0
Total project cost (EUR): 71429.0
EU funding (EUR): 50000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

INGENIA is a company dedicated to the science of motion control since 2006. We design and manufacture electronic solutions to answer the industry’s need for increasingly complex, high-tech motion control applications. We are proud to say that our technology has been integrated by leading machine manufacturers around the world in the industries were we put our focus: Examples are SAMSUNG in South Korea (Semiconductors), PROYTECSA in Spain (Defense Robotics), BEI KIMCO in USA (Medical), ENGTEK in Singapore (SubSea Robotics) and THALES in France (Robotics). Our VISION is to become a reference in the most sophisticated and challenging motion control applications in our market segments. With that aim and in order to be one-step-ahead in developing innovative, feature-rich, high power-density, and ultra-compact products that give our clients a competitive edge, INGENIA is preparing the launch of NANO-POS, a Miniature Motion Controller for NANO-meter level Motor POSitioning. The NANO-POS project rationale is to offer a new disruptive motion control technology that covers the unsatisfied needs of Medical, Semiconductors and Robotics applications, requiring ultra-high precision positioning systems with superior performances while keeping a miniature size due to space constraints. NANO-POS is currently between TRL6 and TRL7 levels and should be in TRL9 within an 18 month timeframe. The planned overall project investment is 1.5M€ and the expected break even for the ROI is in 2017.

Keywords: disruptive motion control technology
Sweet Pepper Harvesting Robot (SWEEPER)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Industrial Leadership
Programme: Information and Communication Technologies
Theme: Advanced interfaces and robots: Robotics and smart spaces
Action type: Innovation actions
Partnership: Robotics SPARC (cPPP)
Countries involved: Israel,Sweden,Belgium,Belgium,Netherlands,Netherlands,Netherlands,Netherlands
Call: Robotics (H2020-ICT-2014-1, 2014)
Start date: 2015-02-01
End date: 2018-10-31
Duration (months): 45.0
Total project cost (EUR): 4345912.49
EU funding (EUR): 4028311.5
Participants: 11
Project status: CLOSED

In modern greenhouses there is a high demand to automate labour. The availability of a skilled workforce that accepts repetitive tasks in harsh greenhouse climate conditions is decreasing rapidly. The resulting increase in labour costs and reduced capacity puts major pressure on the competitiveness of the European greenhouse sector. Present robotization of this labour has entered an high level of technological readiness. However, a gap remains which halts the transition from science to economic and societal impact; the so called ‘Technological Innovation Gap’. In the EU-FP7-project CROPS extensive research has been performed on agricultural robotics. One of the applications was a sweet pepper harvesting robot. It was shown that such a robot is economically and technically viable. The proven hardware and software modules (TRL:6) developed in CROPS will be used as the groundwork. The successful CROPS software modules based on the Robotic-Operating-System (ROS) will be maintained and expanded in SWEEPER. Also the gripper end-effector will be retained. This patent pending module is able to grasp the sweet pepper without the need of an accurate measurement of the position and orientation of the fruit. From the CROPS project, also gained knowledge will directly be put to benefit. In several experiments, it turned out that different growers use different cropping systems ranging in crop density. In SWEEPER, the cropping system itself will be optimized to facilitate robotic harvesting. In CROPS it was concluded that instead of a 9DOF, a 4DOF robot arm is sufficient , greatly reducing costs. To improve the level of robotic cognitive abilities, plant models will be applied to approximate location of sweet peppers. This “model-based vision” will increase and speed up fruit detection. Based on the insights of CROPS, sensors will be placed onto the gripper only. Also a LightField sensor will be introduced which is able to record both colour and 3D information simultaneously.

Keywords: robot,harvester,high value crops,commercialization,market,crop optimization
Rise of scientific excellence and collaboration for implementing personalised medicine in Estonia (ePerMed)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Spreading excellence and widening participation
Programme: Widening participation and spreading excellence
Theme: Improved access to Excellence
Action type: Coordination and support actions
Countries involved: Estonia,Switzerland,Finland
Call: Twinning (H2020-TWINN-2015, 2015)
Start date: 2016-01-01
End date: 2019-02-28
Duration (months): 38.0
Total project cost (EUR): 999750.0
EU funding (EUR): 999750.0
Participants: 3
Project status: CLOSED

Emerging personalised medicine initiatives have the perspective to cut healthcare costs and improve the overall health of the population. Taking into account the individual’s molecular characteristics complemented by environmental and lifestyle factors, will allow to develop more precise and improved disease prevention and treatment programs compared to conventional methods. As an example of potential for personalised medicine, an estimated 90% of drugs are effective in only 30-50% of the population, which means that more than a third of all money spent on drugs has been ineffective. Research opportunities provided by the unique sources of EGC-UT Biobank, nation-wide Electronic Medical Records systems and the Estonian National Personal Medicine Pilot project can be effectively translated into improved understanding of disease etiopathologies and clinical benefit through early diagnosis, risk stratification, treatment and management. The ePerMed project is aimed at increasing the scientific excellence of EGC-UT in the fields of functional and statistical genomics of common and rare diseases by capitalizing on knowledge transfer from two internationally renowned partners in the field of human and medical genomics – UNIL-CIG in Switzerland and UH-FIMM in Finland. As a foreseen result of the ePerMed project, EGC-UT will have the capacity to move from the current research on the genome-wide association studies to advanced research of disease mechanisms and to clinical benefits through early diagnosis, reliable risk stratification and improved treatment strategies. Ultimately, this will enable EGC-UT to deliver effective personalised medicine across several clinically relevant phenotypic traits and diseases.

Keywords: personalised medicine,harnessing genomics into medicine,multi disciplinarity,training,innovation,diagnostics,early prevention,cost effective health system,biobank,nation wide pilot
Unravelling respiratory microflows in silico and in vitro: novel paths for targeted pulmonary delivery in infants and young children (RespMicroFlows)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Products and processes engineering
Panel description: Product and process design, chemical, civil, environmental, mechanical, vehicle engineering, energy processes and relevant computational methods
Countries involved: Israel
Call: ERC Starting Grant (ERC-2015-STG, 2015)
Start date: 2016-06-01
End date: 2021-05-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1937500.0
EU funding (EUR): 1937500.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Fundamental research on respiratory transport phenomena, quantifying momentum and mass transfer in the lung depths, is overwhelmingly focused on adults. Yet, children are not just miniature adults; their distinct lung structures and heterogeneous ventilation patterns set them aside from their parents. In RespMicroFlows, we will break this cycle and unravel the complex microflows characterizing alveolar airflows in the developing pulmonary acini. Our discoveries will foster ground-breaking transport strategies to tackle two urgent clinical needs that burden infants and young children. The first challenge relates to radically enhancing the delivery and deposition of therapeutics using inhalation aerosols; the second involves targeting liquid bolus installations in deep airways for surfactant replacement therapy. By developing advanced in silico numerical simulations together with microfluidic in vitro platforms mimicking the pulmonary acinar environment, our efforts will not only deliver a gateway to reliably assess the outcomes of inhaling aerosols and predict deposition patterns in young populations, we will furthermore unravel the fundamentals of liquid bolus transport to achieve optimal surfactant delivery strategies in premature neonates. By recreating cellular alveolar environments that capture underlying physiological functions, our advanced acinus-on-chips will deliver both at true scale and in real time the first robust and reliable in vitro screening platforms of exogenous therapeutic materials in the context of inhaled aerosols and surfactant-laden installations. Combining advanced engineering-driven flow visualization solutions with strong foundations in transport phenomena, fluid dynamics and respiratory physiology, RespMicroFlows will pave the way to a new and unprecedented level in our understanding and quantitative mapping of respiratory flow phenomena and act as catalyst for novel targeted pulmonary drug delivery strategies in young children.

Keywords: biofluid dynamics,respiratory physiology,microfluidics,organ on chip,computational fluid dynamics,transport phenomena,aerosol transport,inhalation therapeutics,drug delivery
In-Voyage Ballast Water Treatment System (IV-BWTS)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Societal Challenges
Programme: Food security, sustainable agriculture and forestry, marine and maritime and inland water research and the bioeconomy
Theme: Cross-cutting marine and maritime research
Action type: SME instrument
Countries involved: Denmark
Call: Supporting SMEs efforts for the development - deployment and market replication of innovative solutions for blue growth (H2020-SMEINST-2-2016-2017, 2016)
Start date: 2017-02-01
End date: 2020-01-31
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 4673669.9
EU funding (EUR): 2410495.11
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Challenge Ballast water is the dominant vehicle for transport of invasive species in the marine environment, threatening ecoenvironmental stability and diversity. More than 7,000 different species are transported in the 3-10 billion cubic meters of ballast water, which are let over board each year, posing threats of extensive ecological and economic damage to the local aquatic ecosystems. The financial losses caused by these transported invasive species amount to more than €50bn per year in both the EU and US. Solution – the innovation Bawat has developed a ballast water treatment system (BWTS) that eliminates invasive species in the ballast water tank using a new invention. The solution treats the ballast water in-voyage using excess heat from the vessel engines, thereby saving energy and costs. The treatment system runs automatically and independently of other on-board procedures and is 50% cheaper to operate for the ship owners than any competing system, and easier to fit in both existing and new vessels. Impact The project will have significant impact on both the operation of ships globally and the aquatic environments. The invasive species in the ballast water tank will be eliminated and never pose a threat to distant environments. Ship owners will save time and money when ships can leave the harbour right after loading/unloading, and money will be saved as excess heat from the engines is used to eliminate the biological activity in the ballast water tank. Project The objective is to secure a US Coast Guard type approval, as this approval is a de-facto “licence to operate” in the global market. Customers and market The customers are vessel owners and managing companies of vessels, with bulk carriers as well as oil and chemical tankers being the key end-users. Bawat estimates sales of 80 systems, equivalent to a € 30m turnover in 2019, growing to 400 units/€ 192m in 2020. The global market is estimated at € 35bn for the years 2017-2027.

Keywords: ballast water treatment,invasive species