Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Solar cells based on InGaN nanostructures on silicon (SOLARIN)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Intra-European Fellowships
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: France
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2012-IEF, 2012)
Start date: 2013-03-11
End date: 2015-03-10
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 194046.6
EU funding (EUR): 194046.6
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The target of this project is the establishment of a technology platform for the fabrication of a new generation of multi-junction photovoltaic cells based on nanostructured InGaN layers synthesized on silicon substrates. Currently, the photovoltaic market is dominated by single-junction crystalline silicon modules because of their low cost and long-term reliability. However, higher conversion efficiencies are obtained using advanced multi-junction techniques operating under concentration. In this context, this project aims at a major break-through in the solar domain by introduction of InGaN-on-Si solar cells. The ultimate objective is to implement a tandem cell with an InGaN junction in series with a silicon solar cell, in order to achieve a photovoltaic device with high conversion efficiency at a moderate production cost. Furthermore, the outstanding physical and chemical stability of III-nitrides enables them to operate in harsh environments, showing high stability under concentration conditions and superior resistance to high-energy particle radiation. We propose a completely new approach to the nitride-based solar cell, addressing directly nitrogen-polar high-In content layers on low-cost Si(111) substrates. The project must face a number of technological challenges: new state-of-the-art for nitride material design, growth and fabrication technology adapted to the InGaN specificities. As relevant novelties, three novel approaches are incorporated into the solar cells design: (i) growth of N-polar material by introducing a new concept of 3D buffer layer to improve the carrier collection, (ii) incorporation of InGaN/GaN nanostructures (quantum wells/dots) in the active region to enhance indium incorporation, facilitate the strain management and increase the spectral response in the infrared spectral range, and (iii) incorporation of heterostructured p-type region.

Keywords: g205 micro- and nanoelectronics - optoelectronics,g306 energy systems,g202 electrical and electronic engineering,p207 semiconductors,p212 nanophysics,p108 optics and quantum optics,p205
Revolutionizing Understanding of Organic Solar Cell Degradation to Design Novel Stable Materials. (SOLARREVOLUTION)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Intra-European Fellowships
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: Spain
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2012-IEF, 2012)
Start date: 2013-05-06
End date: 2015-05-05
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 166336.2
EU funding (EUR): 166336.2
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

SolarRevolution aims to revolutionise the understanding of bulk-heterojunction organic solar cell (OSC) degradation by developing a detailed knowledge of the chemical and physical processes involved. This knowledge will be applied to the rational design of novel materials to give OSCs 20-year lifetimes and allow mass-market uptake of this low-cost, low-energy-footprint, transparent, lightweight and flexible technology. Quantum-chemical modelling of degradation mechanisms will provide detailed and experimentally-inaccessible insight. This will dramatically enhance the clarity and robustness of experimental conclusions, leading to a deeper understanding of OSC degradation. Diffusion of oxygen into OSCs and the subsequent photochemical reactions represent the dominant source of degradation of the photo-active layer. Quantum-chemical calculations will characterise the chemical species and photochemical reactions involved in degradation. Semiclassical models will reveal how degraded materials impact exciton and polaron dynamics, and hence OSC efficiency. Finally, our new understanding of degradation will be exploited in the design and in-silico screening of novel materials for stable OSCs. Close collaborative links with leading academic and industrial groups will be forged via host-participation in the pan-European OSC research project Establis (FP7-ITN-290022). Two-way knowledge-transfer under strict IP control will: i) provide SolarRevolution with state-of-the-art materials and experimental data, and ii) allow hypotheses and novel material designs generated by SolarRevolution to be experimentally verified and industrially trialled. This will ensure that SolarRevolution will be well-positioned to contribute to high-impact publications and patent filings, raising Europe’s profile in OSC research and establishing the fellow, Michael Wykes, as a leading researcher in the field.

Keywords: c115 theoretical and computational chemistry,c118 photochemistry,p214 molecular electronics,organic photovoltaic cells,photo-oxidation
Investigation of the interaction between external stimulation and ongoing brain activity in cortical networks: analysis, modeling and empirical corroboration (INTERACTIONS)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Intra-European Fellowships
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: Spain
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2012-IEF, 2012)
Start date: 2013-04-15
End date: 2015-04-14
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 166336.2
EU funding (EUR): 166336.2
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The study of brain connectivity is a very important and productive subfield of neuroscience that will keep growing in the following years. Large efforts of data analysis from EEG and fMRI data, as well as of modelling brain activity have been accomplished recently. Here, we have identified two fundamental problems that the field is facing in order to develop further. First, a common factor in the current models of cortical networks is their lack of external stimulation, i.e. they only simulate cortical activity that emulates the resting-state. But the brain is responsible for collecting and processing information of the environment, and therefore, its function cannot be understood in the absence of external stimuli. Second, current EEG and fMRI techniques provide an extremely valuable window into the working brain by detecting the degree of activation of brain regions. However, there is currently no framework to understand which are the precise information processes happening at the neuronal level behind the observed activations. Inspired by these questions, we present an interdisciplinary project that aims at establishing grounding work for the future advances in those problems: 1) We will perform a systematic investigation of the impact of external stimulation in models of cortical networks. The dependence of the emerging collective dynamical phenomena will be studied in terms of the network topology and of the physical properties of the stimuli. 2) We will develop information theoretical measures to quantify the degrees of segregation and integration caused in the brain by the presence of external stimulation, and 3) we will apply those measures to specifically designed EEG experiments for corroboration.

Keywords: complex networks,barin networks,integration & segregation,resting-state,sustained activity,network synchronization
Focused ultrasound under magnetic resonance guidance for targeted drug delivery in the brain (MRGFUS IN THE BRAIN)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: International Outgoing Fellowships
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: Netherlands
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2012-IOF, 2012)
Start date: 2013-09-01
End date: 2016-08-31
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 259745.1
EU funding (EUR): 259745.1
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Patients with brain tumours have limited treatment options and could benefit from new treatments. Focused ultrasound (FUS) combined with a microbubble agent, under guidance of magnetic resonance (MR) imaging, has been used in animal studies to temporarily open the blood-brain-barrier (BBB). The BBB normally protects the brain by blocking most substances from the blood and is a hurdle to the use of therapeutic agents in the brain. The ability to use FUS induced BBB disruption to target drugs to desired volumes in the brain presents a potentially huge advance for neuroscience. The method can also increase the permeability of the blood-tumour barrier, which often retains many characteristics of the normal BBB. To translate this technique to clinical applications, the effectiveness of the technique should be demonstrated. Patients with no or limited treatment options are probably the most willing candidates to participate in a clinical trial, e.g. breast cancer patients with brain metastases. For extracranial metastases in breast cancer patients two antibody agents have shown good results. Their effectiveness in brain metastases is limited, due to the BBB. Permeabilization of the BBB might improve survival in this group of patients. Animal studies with these drugs will be performed to study the survival and tumour progression in rats. The rats will be divided in different treatment groups, animals that 1) get one or both drugs combined with FUS induced BBB permeabilization; 2) only get one or both drugs; 3) only receive FUS induced BBB permeabilization; and 4) receive no treatment. The results of this project will guide future clinical studies. MRguided FUS for targeted drug delivery in the brain is a new and revolutionary technique, with possibilities in many diseases of the central nervous system. As there is limited research in Europe involving this technique, it is important for the ERA to increase the knowledge in Europe and expand research on this topic.

Keywords: l406 cancer and its biological basis,l701 medical engineering and technology,focused ultrasound,magnetic resonance imaging,brain tumours,blood-brain-barrier,targeted drug delivery
Proteomic segmentation of intratumour heterogeneity for identifying clinically relevant tumour subpopulations in gastrointestinal cancers (SITH)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Intra-European Fellowships
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: Netherlands
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2012-IEF, 2012)
Start date: 2013-04-01
End date: 2015-03-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 175974.6
EU funding (EUR): 175974.6
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

An important factor that influences therapy response and prognosis of cancer patients has been identified as intratumoral heterogeneity. Gastrointestinal cancers are known to be morphologically and molecularly very heterogeneous diseases. Thus, there is a strong need to identify clinically relevant tumor subpopulations and characterize their genetic and proteomic features. A novel technology which allows the untargeted and spatially resolved analysis of the molecular content of tissues while preserving the histology of the tissue sections is MALDI (matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization) imaging mass spectrometry, in short MALDI imaging. It has been demonstrated that MALDI imaging constitutes a unique tool to discover tumor subpopulations based solely on the detected mass spectrometry profiles that are not distinguishable by conventional histopathological methods. The objectives of this project are (i) to identify clinical relevant tumor subpopulations by MALDI imaging in gastrointestinal cancers with regard to disease outcome and metastasis as clinical endpoints, and (ii) to characterize the molecular properties of these subpopulations on a genetic, proteomic, and metabolomic level. This could provide more knowledge about the biology of tumors and their molecular variance, and result in novel markers for therapy prediction or prognosis of patients, thus aiding the progress towards more personalized-medicine.

Keywords: l203 proteomics,l210 bioinformatics,l406 cancer and its biological basis,maldi imaging,tissue proteomics,tumor heterogeneity,gastrointestinal cancer
Invisible Protein States in Bacterial Chemotaxis: a relaxation dispersion NMR study. (CHEMOTAXISNMR)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Intra-European Fellowships
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2012-IEF, 2012)
Start date: 2013-06-01
End date: 2016-02-29
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 231283.2
EU funding (EUR): 231283.2
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The process by which bacteria bias their motility, enabling them to move towards favourable chemical stimuli and away from unfavourable ones, is called chemotaxis. Motility and chemotaxis are essential for the virulence of many medically important bacteria, including Helicobacter pylori, and also play a role in agriculturally important bacteria, such as the nitrogen-fixing Azospirillum brasilense. The chemotaxis signalling network of E. coli has been extensively studied. The small 14kD protein CheY is an important response regulator in this chemotaxis signalling network, and conserved across all systems. It undergoes a conformational change when activated by phosphorylation which increases its affinity for the FliM component of the flagellar motor switch complex. This results in a change in the direction of the flagellar motor rotation. Most bacteria have much more complex chemosensory systems than those of E. coli. Rhodobacter sphaeroides, the subject of this proposal, has multiple homologues of the E. coli chemosensory proteins. For example, it produces six homologues of the response regulator CheY. These CheY’s, CheY1/2/3/4/5/6, are localized to and are regulated by different clusters of chemosensory proteins in the cell and, while they all bind the motor switch, they have different effects on chemotaxis. The aim of this project is to understand, at the level of individual amino acids, how these six highly homologous CheY proteins are fine-tuned to carry out their specific roles. State-of-the-art NMR methods will be used to study the structure and dynamics of several CheY’s in their inactive and active states. Low populations of ‘active-like’ conformations that exist in unphosphorylated, inactive CheY’s will be characterized using NMR relaxation dispersion methods. These ‘invisible’ states are likely to play a crucial role in the activation mechanism of the CheY’s, and differences observed for the six homologues will help in understanding their specific roles.

Keywords: l107 structural biology,l106 biophysics,bacterial chemotaxis,chey protein,nmr spectroscopy,relaxation dispersion nmr experiments,l307 cell signalling and cellular interactions
Transnational Protest: Social Movements and Political Mobilisation Across Ireland and the Irish Diaspora, 1879-1903 (PRODIA)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Intra-European Fellowships
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2012-IEF, 2012)
Start date: 2014-01-01
End date: 2016-07-02
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 221606.4
EU funding (EUR): 221606.4
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

At the core of this research project lies an investigation of social and political protest in the complex transnational space across Ireland and the Irish diaspora. Irish people who emigrated are frequently considered by historians as a separate field of inquiry, set apart from Irish history. I propose to comparatively analyze how Irish people at home, in Britain and the United States engaged with widespread agrarian protest in Ireland during the period 1879-1903. The Irish Land League and subsequent agrarian movements were genuinely transnational phenomena in that they connected Ireland with the diaspora worldwide. My study investigates the sources, nature and chronology of support for these movements. Through combining membership and subscriber lists with new digitised genealogical databases and shipping records, I will create a social profile, which will enable the sustained comparison across national boundaries of key themes and questions, such as mechanisms of political mobilisation; class; the relational landscape between diasporas and the home country; the role of women; social mobility. Through moving beyond the island of Ireland as the ‘container space’ of analysis, this project integrates the history of modern Ireland with that of its diaspora, and develops methodological and theoretical models that will contribute to furthering transnational and global agendas beyond the field of Irish history. In doing so I will make a substantial contribution to the historiographies of Ireland and the receiver countries, Britain and the United States and research in the European Research Area.

Keywords: modern history,migration,diaspora,transnational and comparative history,political science,sociology cultural history,social history,modern ireland
'Knowledgeable' Governors of Uncertainty? International Organisations in the Absence of a Global Migration Regime (MIGGOV)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Intra-European Fellowships
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2012-IEF, 2012)
Start date: 2013-09-01
End date: 2015-08-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 221606.4
EU funding (EUR): 221606.4
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The MIGGOV seeks to break new ground in the analysis of international organizations (IOs) as key objects of study in the broader research field of international migration governance and of international governance more generally. The key questions are: to what extent, how and why do IOs impact upon and shape international migration governance in the absence of a global migration regime. In order to address these questions the project shifts the focus from international governance as a (changing) structure to international governors as sources of agency and to the outcomes that flow from interactions between various agents. As most international migration governance takes place under conditions of uncertainty about future migration scenarios, this project will specifically explore the issues of the production and the use of expert knowledge by IOs striving to impact upon international migration governance. The project will study the involvement of eight IOs in migration governance in Central Asia, which has been selected for analysis because it has so far escaped the attention of scholars despite evidence of multi-layered migration governance in the region. The project will specifically look at four Central Asian countries: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan that share many similar features, but also exhibit some distinct political and socio-economic differences that make them highly relevant objects of study. The focus on Central Asia is also justified by the strategic importance that many international actors, including the EU, ascribe to the region. In addition to the Central Asian regional case study and intra-regional comparisons, the MIGGOV will produce overarching comparisons with the EU’s ‘Eastern Neighbourhood’. The project addresses topics on which the EU has called for further research in its 2013 Work Programme, namely those within activities 8.3 ‘Major trends in society and their implications’ and 8.4 ‘Europe in the World’.

Keywords: s106 globalization - migration - interethnic relations,s112 global and transnational governance - international law - human rights,international organisations,political use of expert knowledge
Simulation of Dielectric Spectra (SIDIS)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Intra-European Fellowships
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: Austria
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2012-IEF, 2012)
Start date: 2013-04-01
End date: 2015-03-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 248379.6
EU funding (EUR): 248379.6
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Modern spectroscopic techniques allow to measure the frequency dependent dielectric permittivity of complex liquids over about 18 decades, accessing relaxation times ranging from several hours down to the picosecond scale. The central problem in interpreting dielectric spectra is to relate the spectral features to the underlying dynamics of the molecular or atomic components of the fluids. Molecular dynamics simulations could provide in this sense invaluable help. However, a large number of important relaxation processes, responsible for spectral peaks, originate from rare events, the presence of which can severely limit the potential of this simulation technique. Up until now, only standard molecular dynamics simulations have been employed to investigate dielectric spectra, and the capabilities of enhanced sampling techniques such as metadynamics or parallel tempering have been largely neglected in this field. In addition, liquids other than water have received relatively little attention in the framework of computational dielectric spectroscopy, even though plenty of important problems are still waiting for an answer. I will fill this gap by putting forward an approach which combines the knowledge of the free energy landscape provided by enhanced sampling techniques with the information accessible by molecular dynamics simulations. I will use this novel approach to tackle two compelling problems (the origin of the excess wing in liquid glycerol spectra and the ion pairing properties in room temperature ionic liquids) in the fundamental understanding of two materials which are crucial for the modern economy. The SIDIS approach is expected to have an important impact on the field of computational dielectric spectroscopy, as it will lay the foundations of a new data analysis paradigm that allows to perform assignments of spectral features never done before, therefore providing a major contribution to the advancement of this field.

Keywords: dielectric spectroscopy,molecular dynamics simulation,p215 soft condensed matter,c107 chemical physics,p304 spectroscopic and spectrometric techniques