Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Encapsulation of bioactive compounds from cherry waste with acetate-producing bacteria for the increase of intestinal butyrogenic bacteria (PRECAP)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Postdoctoral Fellowships
Action type: Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions
Panel: Environment and Geosciences
Countries involved: Spain,United Kingdom
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2024 (HORIZON-MSCA-2024-PF-01, 2024)
Start date: 2026-01-08
End date: 2028-07-07
Duration (months): 30.0
Total project cost (EUR): 242593.2
EU funding (EUR): 242593.2
Participants: 3
Project status: SIGNED

This PRECAP project aims to revalorize cherry waste (Prunus avium L.) from agricultural industry by bringing a new approach to the European circular economy. PRECAP by encapsulating prebiotic bioactive compounds extracted from cherry waste (dietary fiber and proanthocyanidins) and acetate producing bacteria (Bifidobacterium or Lactobacillus, that consume these biocompounds), seek to restore the health concentrations of butyrogenic bacteria in the intestinal microbiome, which consume acetate by cross-feeding to produce butyrate. The project stands out for its innovation in the development of functional capsules to prevent or mitigate inflammatory bowel diseases derived from the reduction of butyrate produced by the intestinal microbiome. Furthermore, this is enhanced by the healthy nutraceutical effect of phenolic compounds and dietary fiber extracted from cherry waste. The design of this functional capsule of potential probiotic bacteria that produce acetate together with prebiotics from cherry waste, added to the application of a scalable encapsulation methodology (spray-dryer), could be the basis for the development of functional foods from agro-industrial waste. Acetate-producing bacteria are more aerotolerant than butyrogenic (strictly anaerobic) bacteria, which would allow more feasible scalability and management projection in the food industry. Finally, PRECAP is expected to improve the competitiveness, sustainability, and circular economy of agri-food chains, and be a viable alternative to improve people's health.

Keywords: cherry waste,prunus avium l,prebiotic,circular economy,acetate producing bacteria,cross feeding,encapsulation,functional food ingredient,butyrogenic bacteria,inflammatory bowel diseases
Three dimensional INtegrated PhotonIcS to RevolutionizE deep Learning (INSPIRE)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Consolidator grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Systems and Communication Engineering
Panel description: Electrical, electronic, communication, optical and systems engineering
Countries involved: France
Call: ERC CONSOLIDATOR GRANTS (ERC-2021-COG, 2021)
Start date: 2022-12-01
End date: 2027-11-30
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1998918.0
EU funding (EUR): 1998918.0
Participants: 3
Project status: SIGNED

Neural networks revolutionize computation and already outperform humans according to many benchmarks. They have the potential to transform society and have already influenced Google to place artificial intelligence at the core (“AI first”) of business strategy. Governments and policy bodies worldwide focus on neural network-based computing as a vital future technology. Despite the evident promise, however, current architectures severely lose computational efficiency when applied to large neural networks and scale badly. The performance of current neural network hardware is orders of magnitude below what is theoretically possible, and the future development of artificial intelligence is therefore in jeopardy. I will solve this problem by developing neural network processors using advanced photonic components, specifically enabling a breakthrough with three-dimensional integrated photonic waveguides to implement a biologically inspired, fully parallel and scalable architecture. This is not an incremental improvement, but rather a completely new and never-explored approach, which will revolutionize neural network hardware. Based on this technology, I will create a fully programmable optical tensor processing unit by interfacing 3D waveguide Mach-Zehnder interferometers with a commercial SLM. The unit will calculate the connection of a neural network with speeds and energy efficiency exceeding the state of the art by two orders of magnitude, while programmability makes it widely applicable. A second system will go far beyond by implementing fully-fletched and programmable optical neural networks based on 3D waveguides and semiconductor lasers. The proof of principle building blocks of the project are in place and I am recognized as a leading researcher in the field. The realisation of this project will unlock doors to scalability, cascadability, and parallelism, and stimulate new research as well as applications in artificial intelligence.
Dissecting hepatocyte heterogeneity in liver growth to devise liver gene therapies for pediatric patients (HEPAGENE)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Consolidator grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Prevention,  Diagnosis and T reatment of Human Diseases
Panel description: Medical technologies  and tools for prevention, diagnosis and treatment of human diseases, therapeutic approaches and interventions , pharmacology, preventative  medicine, epidemiology and public health , digital medicine
Countries involved: Italy
Call: ERC CONSOLIDATOR GRANTS (ERC-2024-COG, 2024)
Start date: 2025-09-01
End date: 2030-08-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1993750.0
EU funding (EUR): 1993750.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

In vivo genetic engineering of hepatocytes may represent a definitive cure for monogenic metabolic diseases. Integration of the therapeutic transgene into the target cell genome is essential for long-term expression after a single dose early in life and can be achieved by semi-randomly integrating lentiviral vectors or site-specific genome editing. Maintenance of the genetic modification upon hepatocytes proliferation in liver growth and turnover requires targeting the cells underlying these processes. Little is known about post-natal liver growth and how different hepatocyte subsets contribute to it. Unexpectedly, we found that most hepatocytes are quiescent during liver growth, and a fraction of them generate most of the adult tissue. The overall goal of HEPAGENE is to dissect hepatocyte heterogeneity in post-natal liver maturation and unravel its implications for in vivo gene engineering, to ultimately design and develop safe, effective, and durable gene therapies to treat diseases of hepatic metabolism in pediatric patients. To achieve this goal, we will: i) characterize molecular programs of proliferating and quiescent hepatocyte subsets; ii) assess their susceptibility to lentiviral gene transfer and nuclease-mediated gene editing, in both normal mice and in a disease model of methylmalonic acidemia, a severe early-onset disease, taken as paradigmatic of inherited metabolic diseases; iii) estimate clonal dynamics of genetically modified hepatocytes in vivo in non-human primates and analyze gene signatures in human liver samples, to establish a correspondence between murine and primate’s hepatocyte subsets. We will exploit state-of-the-art organoid, single-cell and multi-omic analyses including latest-generation spatial transcriptomics. HEPAGENE will lead to improved understanding of liver biology and gene engineering of hepatocytes, paving the way for novel genomic medicine products that offer hope to children affected by otherwise incurable metabolic diseases

Keywords: lentiviral vectors,gene editing,hepatocytes proliferation,hepatocytes maturation,spatial transcriptomics
Unravelling bacterial immunity against predatory bacteria: the last line of defence (BAC-MUNITY)

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: Switzerland
Call: ERC STARTING GRANTS (ERC-2025-STG, 2025)
Start date: 2026-04-01
End date: 2031-03-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2499744.0
EU funding (EUR): 2499744.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

In times of rising antimicrobial resistance (AMR), natural predators of bacteria have great potential as alternatives. However, as with antibiotics, their efficacy is modulated by the ability of bacterial targets to develop resistance. For bacterial predators this relates specifically to understanding predator-prey interactions and particularly prey defence to attack and early stages of infection. However, in stark contrast to phage defence systems, little is known about bacterial prey resistance to predatory bacteria, and barely anything about prey bacterial immunity against predatory bacteria which is the last line of prey defence in the periplasm or cytosol. While the factors determining bacterial immunity against predatory bacteria are unknown, recently I have detected, for the first time, novel evolutionary hotspots in the bacterial prey genome in response to predatory pressure. This reveals unexplored opportunities to elucidate mechanistically bacterial immunity against predatory bacteria. The goal of BAC-MUNITY is to define the systems generating bacterial immunity against predatory bacteria. Appling methods from genetic engineering, protein interaction and various microscopy techniques (time-lapse widefield, super-resolution), we will (i) identify the mechanisms of bacterial prey immune systems against predatory bacteria, and (ii) determine specificity in relation to different predatory bacteria and elucidate how universal they are amongst different bacterial prey. Further, we will (iii) investigate regulation using predators engineered to overcome prey immunity and prey with genetically inactivated self-protection. Unravelling new bacterial immune systems against predatory bacteria will open new research avenues with great potential in biotechnology, while providing valuable knowledge on the predator-prey arms race. It will contribute to the development of novel, sustainable treatments against AMR by exploiting the potential of predatory bacteria.

Keywords: microbial interactions predator prey interaction predatory bacteria bacterial immunity genetic engineering gram negative bacteria molecular mechanisms antimicrobial therapy
Cross-platform Open Security Stack for Connected Devices (CROSSCON)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness
Programme: Civil Security for Society
Theme: Civil Security for Society
Destination: Increased Cybersecurity
Action type: Research and Innovation actions
Countries involved: Spain,Switzerland,Italy,Portugal,Hungary,Germany,Poland,Slovenia
Call: Improved security in open-source and open-specification hardware for connected devices (HORIZON-CL3-2021-CS-01, 2021)
Start date: 2022-11-01
End date: 2025-10-31
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 4603206.25
EU funding (EUR): 4603206.0
Participants: 11
Project status: SIGNED

IoT developers face a very fragmented landscape made of very different devices, from bare metal devices with few KB of RAM and limited or no security protection to devices equipped with powerful support for AI and with built-in hardware (HW) to implement Root of Trust (RoT) and Trusted Execution Environments (TEE). Such different devices coexist, and it is an open challenge to guarantee an acceptable level of security across the whole system to avoid “easy” entry points for attackers. The complexity is further exacerbated by the existence of many HW platforms, general purpose but also domain specific, each implementing proprietary instances of RoT and TEE that prevent or make it very difficult for applications and security services to interoperate. CROSSCON aims at addressing all these issues by designing a new open, flexible, highly portable and vendor independent IoT security stack that can run across a variety of different edge devices and multiple HW platforms to offer a consistent security baseline across an entire IoT system. A high-level assurance is guaranteed by the formal verification of the stack specifications. CROSSCON stack offers a unified set of trusted APIs to the layers above. It is modular and among all the security features it offers is possible to configure only the ones needed depending on the underlined HW and firmware. It leverages the security features already implemented in the layers below. In case such security features are missing, like in bare metal devices, the stack offers an entire TEE implementation suitable for such devices. As devices are getting more powerful and use cases more complex, there is the need to add new trusted services as building blocks to implement security at the higher levels, such as protection of the models given in input to ML engines embedded in HW or support for biometrics and template protections. CROSSCON provides the open specifications of the stack along with an open-source reference implementation.
Public–Private Insurance Partnerships for Adapting to Multi-Hazard Climate Change Risks (INSUREADAPT)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Consolidator grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Human Mobility, Environment, and Space
Panel description: Human geography, demography, health, susta inability science, territorial planning, spatial analysis
Countries involved: Netherlands
Call: ERC CONSOLIDATOR GRANTS (ERC-2022-COG, 2022)
Start date: 2023-12-01
End date: 2028-11-30
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1999999.0
EU funding (EUR): 1999999.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Natural disasters cause substantial economic losses, which are expected to increase due to climate change. The insurance sector plays a central role in managing these risks. It is thus imperative that insurers accurately assess and address climate risks. Risk assessment methods currently fall short in accurately understanding climate risks because they focus on single hazards (e.g. floods) instead of correlated multi-hazard risks (e.g. windstorms and floods) affected by climate change. They also insufficiently account for human climate adaptation processes leading to risk reduction, which are characterized by bounded rationality and social interaction. Furthermore, additional insights are needed into how to design insurance arrangements that address climate change and stimulate policyholders to adapt to multi-hazard climate risks by limiting natural disaster damage. This project aims to design insurance arrangements to enhance policyholders’ adaptation to multi-hazard climate risks by combining financial coverage with comprehensive strategies for stimulating risk reduction. Its interdisciplinary approach goes beyond the state-of-the-art by creating novel multi-hazard climate risk assessments for insurance and by developing agent-based models (ABMs) that account for boundedly rational human adaptation decisions and social interaction. The ABMs evaluate natural disaster insurance arrangements for EU countries with diverse risk contexts and assess strategies for stimulating adaptation by policyholders, based on input from behavioural economic studies. Repeated and real-time surveys and economic experiments will identify comprehensive strategies for triggering behavioural change to stimulate adaptation to the multitude of climate change risks individuals face. These strategies linked to (public–private) insurance combine communication on risk and risk reduction measures, insurance incentives (e.g. deductibles, premium discounts), and nudges.

Keywords: decision making under climate risk,climate adaptation,climate economics,natural disaster insurance,natural disaster risk assessment
Scoping European N fluxes for sustainable N management and conservation practices (NitroScope)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness
Programme: Mission
Theme: Soil health and food
Destination: Soil health and food
Action type: Research and Innovation actions
Countries involved: Belgium,Italy,Portugal,Czechia,Poland,United Kingdom,Estonia,Serbia,Greece,Germany,France,Spain,Switzerland,Norway,Finland
Call: Systems to quantify nitrogen fluxes and uncertainties in European landscapes (HORIZON-MISS-2024-SOIL-01, 2024)
Start date: 2025-10-01
End date: 2029-09-30
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 11410906.25
EU funding (EUR): 11410906.25
Participants: 25
Project status: SIGNED

Nitrogen (N) is a vital nutrient for plant growth. However, the intensive use of N fertilizers in agriculture, whereby only 30-50% of applied N is taken up by crops, has led to significant environmental challenges. Impactful losses occur through nitrate leaching to the groundwater, leading to its contamination, and through nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions, a long-lasting greenhouse gas. Acknowledging the need for a coordinated effort among the four helixes of innovation (i.e. research, society, industry and policy) to unlock the necessary efforts for monitoring N fluxes and action towards reducing N losses and increasing N use efficiency, NitroScope has two major ambitions: a) improving scientific knowledge for pedo-climatic regions getting both simple region-specific emissions factors and model-based decision support and b) bringing the knowledge to land managers so that mitigation will happen. To achieve this, NitroScope will improve N flux monitoring through 125 sites spread over at least 10 pedo-climatic regions using improved proximal sensors for high throughput continuous nitrate quantification, remote sensing, and better methodology to adequately account for the variability of in-the-field N2O emissions. The data will be gathered in a database hosted on a cloud to facilitate reporting and will be used to determine region-specific emission factors and provide model-based decision support with reduced uncertainties. Based on this, improved N management and conservation solutions will be assessed, including variable rate N fertilization and crop residue management. NitroScope will further use transdisciplinary methodology, including developing 2 farm management add-ons, to inform and engage land managers to actively contribute to monitoring and managing N fluxes in Europe while improving agricultural yield and quality. Finally, this will result in a more precise EU N budget estimation and future scenarios to support decision-making.

Keywords: n management and conservation strategies,biogeochemical processes,proximal and remote sensing,process based n models,nitrogen database,n fluxes quantification,stakeholder engagement
HyCO2 - Upscaling of Metalhydride compressor for flexible application ranges (HyCO2)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness
Programme: Climate, Energy and Mobility
Theme: Public-private partnerships
Destination: Clean Hydrogen
Action type: Research and Innovation actions
Partnership: CLEANH2 (JU-JTI)
Countries involved: Austria,Switzerland,Norway,Italy,Denmark,Germany
Call: Development of cost effective and high-capacity compression solutions for hydrogen (HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2025, 2025)
Start date: 2026-01-01
End date: 2028-12-31
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 5986459.78
EU funding (EUR): 4989022.51
Participants: 7
Project status: SIGNED

HyCO² aims to revolutionize hydrogen compression technology by upscaling and demonstrating an innovative metal hydride (MH) compressor tailored for diverse application ranges across mobility, distribution, and industrial sectors. The project addresses the critical need for efficient, cost-effective, silent and environmentally sustainable compression solutions in a hydrogen-based economy. The central objective is the development of a modular MH compressor package capable of flexibly addressing varied pressure requirements, from 30 bar for industrial applications, to 300 bar for distribution, and up to 900 bar for mobility applications. This versatility will be validated with a full-scale prototype demonstrating high flow performance (30 kg H2 in 12 minutes at 900 bar) under real-world conditions at a dedicated research facility. To ensure environmental compatibility and long-term sustainability, HyCO² aims to select and integrate a non-toxic, highly recyclable, and abundantly available metal hydride alloy offering superior performance and durability. The project will further explore cost reduction strategies through effective waste heat utilisation and advanced thermal management techniques by means of a sophisticated simulation toolchain, significantly lowering the operational costs of hydrogen compression in targeted applications. In parallel, an innovative hydrogen-based heat box will be developed to enhance the compressor’s flexibility and operational efficiency across various environments and configurations. By tackling key challenges in hydrogen compression, HyCO² directly supports the objectives of the Clean Hydrogen JU’s Annual Work Programme, particularly the advancement of robust, scalable, and sustainable hydrogen technologies. The outcomes of HyCO² will accelerate market readiness and deployment of hydrogen distribution and refueling infrastructure, contributing Europe’s transition toward a low-carbon economy.

Keywords: metal hydride compressor high flow compression high pressure applications