Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Electro-Mechanical Haptic System: Development and implementation of a component designed to improve haptic feedback in a touch sensitive application (TETRHA)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Industrial Leadership
Programme: Innovation in SMEs
Action type: SME instrument
Countries involved: Italy
Call: SME instrument (H2020-SMEInst-2018-2020-1, 2018)
Start date: 2018-05-01
End date: 2018-08-31
Duration (months): 4.0
Total project cost (EUR): 71429.0
EU funding (EUR): 50000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Haptic actuators are the devices that provide users of touch sensitive surfaces with tactile feedback. Tactile feedback in Human Machine Interfaces (HMI) is employed across a broad spectrum of industries such as the automotive, home appliances, aerospace and hotels/cafes/restaurants (HORECA) sectors. There are three types of actuators commonly employed in HMI and these are the Eccentric Rotating Mass (ERM), Linear Resonant Actuator (LRA) and the Piezo Electric actuator. The problems presented by ERM and LRA include slow response time, vibration of the whole device which causes noise and diminished user experience as the user can only feel the touch screen and not the virtual object displayed on the screen. The actuators are also bulky, and this affects the aesthetics of the devices they are used in. The Piezo Electric actuators are the best to date but are expensive and require high voltages making them difficult to drive. The haptic technology market was worth €5.56 billion in 2017 and Europe accounted for around 8% of this market. The global market is set to reach €16.08 billion by 2025. TASTITALIA Srl, established in 1999, is a company that specialises in HMI technology and produces HMI such as touch screens and panels, keypads and automotive dials. Through this project, TETRHA, TASTITALIA presents a novel miniaturised electromagnetic haptic actuator for use primarily, but not limited to, the automotive industry. Apart from the compact dimensions, our solution also provides users with improved haptic feedback in terms of faster response time, higher vibration force, enhanced user experience through multisensory interaction and inaudible acoustic feedback. Our haptic actuators can be customised and together with their compactness, improved aesthetic appeal of final products is guaranteed. Our haptic actuators cost 20–30% less than the available market options. TETRHA will provide TASTITALIA with a turnover of €4.81M and a return of investment of 12.52%.

Keywords: haptic actuators,touch,human machine interfaces
Scalable Quantum Optical Interconnects (QUSCALE)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Systems and communication engineering
Panel description: Electrical, electronic, communication, optical and systems engineering
Countries involved: Belgium,Sweden
Call: ERC STARTING GRANTS (ERC-2020-STG, 2020)
Start date: 2021-11-01
End date: 2026-10-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2047500.0
EU funding (EUR): 2047500.0
Participants: 2
Project status: SIGNED

Coherent quantum systems are globally pursued in the race to build a compelling technology. One fast-developing approach uses high-fidelity microwave qubits. Major research efforts in academia and industry are demonstrating an elementary form of supremacy over classical technology by moving to tens and hundreds of such cryogenic qubits. However, it is currently impossible to connect the qubits well beyond a single refrigerator while preserving their fragile quantum properties – limiting their use outside the laboratory. Optical photons, with their long-distance and near-noiseless propagation along room-temperature fibers, are uniquely placed to tackle this challenge. In QUSCALE, we will realize deployable converters between microwave and optical photons. We will build chips that convert between microwave and optical quantum information. The chips will let us increase the size of emerging quantum processors and networks to a level where we can perform useful tasks beyond the reach of classical systems. To find use outside the laboratory, the converters must minimize the energy that is dissipated per converted qubit between microwaves and optics. Dissipated energy will determine whether microwave quantum processors can scale up via optics. We will achieve major reductions in the dissipated energy per converted qubit. The proposed devices will create a fundamentally new tool for physicists and engineers. They will enable a series of increasingly impactful networking tasks on the way to entanglement between distant microwave qubits, addressing an urgent need for optical interconnects between microwave quantum processors.

Keywords: nanophotonics,optical interconnects,silicon photonics,distributed quantum processors and networks,optomechanics,superconducting circuits,piezoelectric transducers
Reverse-engineering the development of embryos with physics-informed machine learning (DeepEmbryo)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Systems and communication engineering
Panel description: Electrical, electronic, communication, optical and systems engineering
Countries involved: France
Call: ERC STARTING GRANTS (ERC-2020-STG, 2020)
Start date: 2021-01-01
End date: 2025-12-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1957751.0
EU funding (EUR): 1957751.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Embryogenesis is archetypal of a self-organized process, where the emergence of a complex structure stems from the interaction of its elementary parts. Progress in imaging and molecular genetics allow us to delve into embryos at unprecedented spatiotemporal resolutions, but extracting biophysical information from this complex multidimensional data is a highly technical challenge. As a result the principles of multicellular self-organization remain far from understood. DeepEmbryo proposes to fill this gap by pioneering the use of deep learning to reverse-engineer early embryo development directly from high-resolution 3D microscopy movies. Focusing on four animal groups (mammals, ascidians, nematodes and annelids), the project will combine physical modeling and machine learning to tackle three fundamental questions from a unique transversal perspective: Q1 What are the forces shaping early embryos? Using convolutional neural networks, I will develop an automated method to directly infer cell forces from membrane-labeled images of embryos. Q2 How do cells coordinate forces, division and signaling? Regarding cells as dynamical systems, I will model them with minimal neural networks and design a multi-agent embryo model able to learn by reinforcement the fundamental feedback controls between mechanics and fate. Q3 What principles ensure developmental robustness? Using deep generative models, I will infer intra-specie developmental variability to identify robust developmental traits and mechanisms. Using dropout techniques as virtual analog to genetic knockout, I will produce experimentally testable new predictions, refining my inaugural virtual embryos. Pioneering a new field at the frontier of developmental biology, artificial intelligence and physics, DeepEmbryo will uncover the fundamental engineering principles of early embryogenesis, with far-reaching implications in multi-agent modeling, evolutionary biology, physical inference and tissue engineering.

Keywords: early embryogenesis,deep learning,agent based modeling,multicellular self organization,reverse engineering,morphogenesis,biological physics,physical inference,image analysis
Quantification of FOssil methane emissions using Radiocarbon measurements of atmospheric Methane (FORM)

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: Switzerland
Call: Individual Fellowships (H2020-MSCA-IF-2020, 2020)
Start date: 2022-05-01
End date: 2024-04-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 191149.44
EU funding (EUR): 191149.44
Participants: 1
Project status: TERMINATED

With FORM the experience researcher (ER) will develop and apply a novel tool to investigate methane (CH4) sources and estimate their emissions through the measurement and modelling of radiocarbon (14C) in atmospheric CH4. CH4 is the second most important anthropogenic greenhouse gas but CH4 emissions, and particularly their attribution to specific sources, are not well-constrained. 14C measurements provide the most accurate way of identifying fossil fuel-derived methane (from natural gas leaks, coal mining, and petroleum refining) vs biogenic methane (agriculture, waste and wetlands). Fossil carbon has lost all 14C after millions of years of radioactive decay during burial underground and it is entirely depleted in 14C. When emitted into the atmosphere, fossil-derived methane will cause a strong decrease into the atmospheric ratio of radiocarbon to total carbon in methane (Δ14CH4). By measuring variations in Δ14CH4, the fossil fraction of methane emissions can be quantified. Despite their incredible usefulness, there are presently very few Δ14CH4 measurements made anywhere in the world, because there is no available system for sampling atmospheric methane for radiocarbon analysis that is easy-to-use and versatile. This challenge has been addressed by the latest work of the ER, who has developed a unique sampling method for high precision Δ14CH4 measurements. The ER’s sampling system is currently a laboratory prototype. To realize its potential, she will further develop the system at the Laboratory of Ion Beam Physics (LIP) at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH). She will make Δ14CH4 measurements easier to perform, ultimately enabling systematic Δ14CH4 measurements to be produced. The new Δ14CH4 measurements will be integrated into a modelling framework as a further constraint on the contribution from different methane source categories and for verification of local inventories.

Keywords: atmospheric methane,radiocarbon,greenhouse gases,methane urban sources
MULTIple DRONE platform for media production (MULTIDRONE)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Industrial Leadership
Programme: Information and Communication Technologies
Action type: Research and Innovation actions
Partnership: Robotics SPARC (cPPP)
Countries involved: Spain,Italy,Germany,Greece,France,France,France,United Kingdom,United Kingdom,Portugal
Call: System abilities, development and pilot installations (H2020-ICT-2016-1, 2016)
Start date: 2017-01-01
End date: 2019-12-31
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 5306536.25
EU funding (EUR): 5306536.25
Participants: 10
Project status: CLOSED

MULTIDRONE aims to develop an innovative, intelligent, multi-drone platform for media production to cover outdoor events, which are typically held over wide areas (at stadium/city level). The 4-10 drone team, to be managed by the production director and crew, will have: a) increased decisional autonomy, by minimizing production crew load and interventions and b) improved robustness, security and safety mechanisms (e.g., embedded flight regulation compliance, enhanced crowd avoidance, autonomous emergency landing, communications security), enabling it to carry out its mission even against adverse conditions or crew inaction and to handle emergencies. Such robustness is particularly important, as the drone team has to operate close to crowds and may face an unexpected course of events and/or environmental hazards. Therefore, it must be contextually aware and adaptive with improved perception of crowds, individual people and other hazards. As this multi-actor system will be heterogeneous, consisting of multiple drones and the production crew, serious human-in-the-loop issues will be addressed to avoid operator overload, with the goal of maximizing shooting creativity and productivity, whilst minimizing production costs. Overall, MULTIDRONE will boost research on multiple-actor systems by proposing novel multiple-actor functionalities and performance metrics. Furthermore, the overall multidrone system will be built to serve identified end user needs. Specifically, innovative, safe and fast multidrone audiovisual shooting will provide a novel multidrone cinematographic shooting genre and new media production techniques that will have a large impact on the financially important EU broadcasting/media industry. It will boost production creativity by allowing the creation of rich/novel media output formats, improving event coverage, adapting to event dynamics and offering rapid reaction speed to unexpected events.

Keywords: media production,multi drone systems,multi drone autonomy,multi drone safety and reliability,active perception,computer vision
Computational Light fields IMaging (CLIM)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Advanced grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Systems and communication engineering
Panel description: Electrical, electronic, communication, optical and systems engineering
Countries involved: France
Call: ERC Advanced Grant (ERC-2015-AdG, 2015)
Start date: 2016-09-01
End date: 2022-02-28
Duration (months): 66.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2461086.0
EU funding (EUR): 2461086.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Light fields technology holds great promises in computational imaging. Light fields cameras capture light rays as they interact with physical objects in the scene. The recorded flow of rays (the light field) yields a rich description of the scene enabling advanced image creation capabilities from a single capture. This technology is expected to bring disruptive changes in computational imaging. However, the trajectory to a deployment of light fields remains cumbersome. Bottlenecks need to be alleviated before being able to fully exploit its potential. Barriers that CLIM addresses are the huge amount of high-dimensional (4D/5D) data produced by light fields, limitations of capturing devices, editing and image creation capabilities from compressed light fields. These barriers cannot be overcome by a simple application of methods which have made the success of digital imaging in past decades. The 4D/5D sampling of the geometric distribution of light rays striking the camera sensors imply radical changes in the signal processing chain compared to traditional imaging systems. The ambition of CLIM is to lay new algorithmic foundations for the 4D/5D light fields processing chain, going from representation, compression to rendering. Data processing becomes tougher as dimensionality increases, which is the case of light fields compared to 2D images. This leads to the first challenge of CLIM that is the development of methods for low dimensional embedding and sparse representations of 4D/5D light fields. The second challenge is to develop a coding/decoding architecture for light fields which will exploit their geometrical models while preserving the structures that are critical for advanced image creation capabilities. CLIM targets ground-breaking solutions which should open new horizons for a number of consumer and professional markets (photography, augmented reality, light field microscopy, medical imaging, particle image velocimetry).

Keywords: source coding,light fields
The distributed Blockchain middleware that allows business worldwide to build business solutions with Blockchain technology (SettleMint)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Industrial Leadership
Programme: Innovation in SMEs
Action type: SME instrument
Countries involved: Belgium
Call: SME instrument (H2020-SMEInst-2018-2020-2, 2018)
Start date: 2019-03-01
End date: 2021-02-28
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2582500.0
EU funding (EUR): 1807750.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The blockchain technology is a very recent and is considered as the 4th Industrial Revolution. According to a global market survey by Juniper Research (2017), 60% of the large corporations are considering blockchain deployment during the next 2 to 10 years. In addition, reports by the World Economic Forum (2017) reveal that more than 30 governments and 90 central banks are currently investing in blockchain, and more than 80% of banks are planning to initiate blockchain projects in the very near future. The challenge, however, lies in a complexity of blockchain technology itself, as most organizations don’t have enough IT personnel & knowledge to deal with this digital transformation. The specialized blockchain developers are very scarce - only approximatively ten thousands worldwide – and the training trajectory takes approximatively 18 months. This lead-time potentially means high investment costs and impacts on the competitive advantages. At SettleMint, we bridge the gap between enterprise and blockchain technology by providing a middleware solution – MINT - that makes it easy for companies to plug-in on the blockchain technology in a few weeks’ time. SettleMint has been established in 2016 in Leuven, Belgium by Roderik van der Veer and Matthew Van Niekerk who combined their expertise and passion for business and technology. We have tested MINT across different sectors from banking, telecom, insurance to energy. We are now in a truly scale-up phase and we internationalize in fast pace. Our MINT technology has been recognized by numerous awards, prized and media coverage. Within this SME Instrument proposal we want to achieve a set of objectives to increase visibility of the company in the international markets, scale in sales and significantly increase headcount up to 244 professionals by end of 2022.

Keywords: distributed blockchain middleware,breakthrough it technologies
Disasters, Communication and Politics in South-Western Europe: the Making of Emergency Response Policies in the Early Modern Age (DISCOMPOSE)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: The study of the human past
Panel description: Archaeology, history and memory
Countries involved: Italy
Call: ERC Starting Grant (ERC-2017-STG, 2017)
Start date: 2018-02-01
End date: 2024-01-31
Duration (months): 72.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1481813.0
EU funding (EUR): 1481813.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

The connections between the circulation of news of extreme events, the making of influential narratives of collective traumas and the development of emergency response policies lie at the heart of this research proposal, which focuses on four Southern European areas: Catalonia, Naples, Sicily and Valencia, from the 16th to the 18th century. How did accounts and individual memories of extreme events amount to authoritative interpretations? In which ways, and to what extent, did the latter orient collective behaviours and the recovery process, in both the short and the long term? Starting from the assumption that human relations are enhanced by the increased levels of socialisation that commonly occur in the aftermath of shocking events, which trigger the sharing of information, opinions and memories; and that the emotional impact of such events is likely to create a public opinion that draws attention to government’s action; the research proposal aims to contribute new insights into these issues by adopting an original methodology, developed across a variety of disciplines, including Cultural and Social History, Textual Criticism, Philology and Anthropology. Moreover, it will adopt a transnational perspective: since the selected regions belonged to the Spanish Monarchy, the development of practices and polices aimed to respond to disruption depended not only on the specific social and cultural features of local societies, but also on the circulation of political and technical staff, as well as on the sharing of knowledge, experiences and policy models, among the various areas of the Empire and its colonies. Studying the information exchange in the aftermath of disasters and the formation of an imagery of extraordinary events, will allow a comprehensive perspective on the policies and practices adopted by early modern societies to manage uncertainty, and on the potential impact that such narratives could have on the renegotiation of political and social relations.

Keywords: disaster studies,information exchange,transnational circulations,political communication,post disaster recovery
High Capacity Space Division Multiplexing Systems (HSPACE)

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: Information Science and Engineering
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call: Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF-EF) (H2020-MSCA-IF-2014, 2014)
Start date: 2016-01-01
End date: 2017-12-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 183454.8
EU funding (EUR): 183454.8
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Our information society relies to an unprecedented extent on broadband communication solutions such as high-speed Internet access, mobile voice and data services, multimedia broadcast systems, etc. In order to fulfil the steadily growing volume and bandwidth demand of those data services while simultaneously reducing the cost per transported information bit, communication systems have been continuously improved in terms of reach and aggregate transport capacity. However, it is now recognised that communication systems are rapidly approaching the fundamental information capacity of current technology, a trend with potential negative impact on the economy and social progress. HSPACE project targets the development of advanced space division multiplexing (SDM) systems to unlock the capacity of future information systems by enabling the transmission of spatial super-channels over a single fibre. The proposed concept will be implemented using multi-core fibres (MCF) and few-mode fibres (FMFs) as underlying technology platform along with novel digital signal processing (DSP) techniques that minimise the mode/core interference and inter mode/core nonlinearities, keeping the required digital processing at realizable levels. HSPACE offers a continued European leadership in RTD photonics from components to systems, securing the necessary human resources and knowledge to design and produce a new generation of photonic components that support EU’s vision for ubiquitous broadband connectivity to promote European social and economic cohesion and prosperity. The aforementioned challenges require researchers highly trained in a number of relevant disciplines ranging from nonlinear science to high-speed optical communication techniques. This fellowship will provide a gifted early career researcher with the opportunity to train at one of the foremost research centres in optical communication, the Aston Institute of Photonics Technology (AITP).

Keywords: optical communication systems,space division multiplexing,multi core fibres,few mode fibres,digital signal processing,advanced transmission links