Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
breaking frontiers for the utilisation of ROBust BIopolymer NanocompoSite materials through flow-induced and nanofiller-assisted tailoring of biomimetic structure and morphology (ROBBINS)

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: Individual Fellowships (H2020-MSCA-IF-2017, 2017)
Start date: 2019-01-01
End date: 2020-12-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 195454.8
EU funding (EUR): 195454.8
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

This project aims to unlock the potential of natural biopolymers such as chitosan and protein which have been increasingly appreciated for not only their renewability (vs petroleum-derived polymers) but also their unique properties for various applications. However, enormous challenges exist to process biopolymers, to disperse nanoparticles in biopolymer matrices, and to achieve desired properties. This research specifically focuses on creating low-cost green biopolymer-graphene nanocomposites with tailored structure and properties via an innovative highly-efficient continuous engineering process. The core objective is to understand the fundamental physicochemical and rheological interactions between biopolymers and graphene with the smart use of novel additives/plasticisers, for precisely controlling composite structural evolution during melt processing. Initially, this will rely on the design of graphene and additives/plasticisers for the biopolymers, and then melt processing and plasticisation of biopolymer-based materials to realise specially oriented distribution of graphene on the nanoscale. Consequently, the interrelationships between processing conditions (affecting the interactions) and material properties (e.g. mechanical, electroconductivity) will be established. The understanding from this project is critical to engineering various biopolymer materials with tailored structures and properties for high-value application areas (e.g. biomedical, environmental). The advancement of knowledge will have a ground-breaking impact on the plastics industry by providing truly high-performance “green” polymer options in major new technology areas that traditional plastics cannot service. Via research and innovation, this multidisciplinary project will enable substantial transfer of knowledge and skills between both parties and provide the Experienced Researcher with widened competencies for research independence and maturity, relevant to the Horizon 2020 Work Program.

Keywords: polysaccharides,carbohydrate polymers,natural polymers,polymer engineering,polymer,processing,polymer composite
Control of Central Nervous Sytem inflammation by meningeal macrophages, and its impairment upon aging (MacMeninges)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: Marie-Sklodowska-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Individual Fellowships (IF)-Reintegration panel
Action type: Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions
Panel: Life Sciences
Countries involved: France
Call: Individual Fellowships (H2020-MSCA-IF-2018, 2018)
Start date: 2019-05-01
End date: 2021-04-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 184707.84
EU funding (EUR): 184707.84000000003
Participants: 2
Project status: CLOSED

Immune responses within the central nervous system (CNS) can drive fatal neuroinflammation and age-related neurodegeneration as seen in the EU but are also crucial to prevent microbial spread into the CNS. It is thus important to understand and control the parameters involved in CNS inflammation. Most studies have focused on the contribution of immune cells localized within the CNS parenchyma. While searching for novel strategies to control neuroinflammation, we and others have found that the nature and activation state of immune cells at the brain surface can profoundly influence CNS inflammation. The parenchyma is enveloped by membranes referred to as the meninges that harbor a vast network of macrophages juxtaposed to blood vasculature, thus ideally positioned to detect pathogens and orchestrate immune cell recruitment into the CNS. The overarching goal of this project is to understand the role of resident meningeal macrophages in initiating and controlling CNS inflammation. To this end, I intend to study the heterogeneity of myeloid subpopulations at steady-state and their differential ability to mount an immune response following a microbial challenge. Furthermore, I will define how natural inflammatory aging impairs the induction of CNS immune responses by meningeal macrophages, and will propose strategies to restore CNS immunity at the brain borders to protect this vital organ. This will be accomplished using combinatorial approaches, including transcriptomics, flow cytometry, histo-cytometry and intravital imaging. Macrophages will be manipulated using transcranial drug delivery and transgenic mice. Sharing skills, expertise, and tools with my host institution will be a key component of this project. Understanding meningeal immunity will open avenues for the treatment of CNS inflammation and neurodegeneration, in line with the H2020 goals of promoting research excellence in the EU to deliver solutions to important societal challenges.

Keywords: central nervous system,meninges,ontogeny,neuroinflammation,macrophages,barriers,inflammaging
Flexible, safe and dependable robotic part handling in industrial environments (PICKPLACE)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Industrial Leadership
Programme: Information and Communication Technologies
Action type: Innovation actions
Partnership: Robotics SPARC (cPPP)
Countries involved: Spain,Germany,Italy,Türkiye
Call: Advanced robot capabilities research and take-up (H2020-ICT-2017-1, 2017)
Start date: 2018-01-01
End date: 2021-04-30
Duration (months): 40.0
Total project cost (EUR): 3099184.68
EU funding (EUR): 2700556.38
Participants: 6
Project status: CLOSED

Pick and place are basic operations in most robotic applications, whether in industrial setups (e.g., machine tending, assembling or bin picking) or in a service robotic domain (e.g., agriculture or at home). In some structured scenarios and with certain types of parts, picking and placing is a mature process. However, that is not the case when it comes to manipulating parts with high variability or in less structured environments. Handling systems are present in any logistics system to interface between the storage and the transportation systems. For non-structured scenarios, picking, packing and unpacking systems do exist at laboratory level. However, they have not reached the market yet due to factors like the lack of efficiency, robustness and flexibility of currently available manipulation and perception technologies. The market demands systems that allow for a reduction of costs in the supply chain, increasing the competitiveness for manufacturers and bringing a cost reduction for consumers. Handling systems represent the highest impact in the short-tomidterm in warehouse-based systems (mainly at order picking and distribution centres) and in intra-logistics operations in factories and retail. The technology gap is the lack of flexible solutions that can handle objects of variable size, shape and weight as well as different surface properties and stiffness. PICKPLACE proposes combining human and robot capabilities to achieve a safe, flexible, dependable and efficient hybrid pick-and-package (PAK) solution. It includes dynamic package configuration planning, flexible grasping strategies using an innovative multifunctional gripper, robust environment perception and mechanisms and strategies for safe human-robot collaboration. These scientific and industrial objectives are motivated by the real requirements demanded by the industry, represented in this proposal by ULMA, System Provider, who will facilitate a realistic and relevant scenario for the validation

Keywords: pick and pack,grasp planning,multifunctional gripper
Open dynamics of interacting and disordered quantum systems (ODYSSEY)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Condensed matter physics
Panel description: Structure, electronic properties, fluids, nanosciences, biological physics
Countries involved: Ireland
Call: ERC Starting Grant (ERC-2017-STG, 2017)
Start date: 2018-07-01
End date: 2023-12-31
Duration (months): 66.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1333325.0
EU funding (EUR): 1333325.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

This research proposal focuses on the open quantum system dynamics of disordered and interacting many- body systems coupled to external baths. The dynamics of systems which contain both disorder and interactions are currently under intense theoretical investigation in condensed matter physics due to the discovery of a new phase of matter known as many-body localization. With the experimental realization of such systems in mind, this proposal addresses an essential issue which is to understand how coupling to external degrees of freedom influences dynamics. These systems are intrinsically complex and lie beyond the unitary closed system paradigm, so the research proposed here contains interdisciplinary methodology beyond the mainstream in condensed matter physics ranging from quantum information to quantum optics. The project has three principal objectives each of which would represent a major contribution to the field: O1. To describe the dynamics of a interacting, disordered many-body systems when coupled to external baths. O2. To perform a full characterization of spin and energy transport in their non-equilibrium steady state. O3. To explore the system capabilities as steady state thermal machine from a systematic microscopic perspective. This will be the first comprehensive study of the open system phenomenology of disordered interacting many-body systems. It will also allow for the systematic study of energy and spin transport and the exploration of the potential of these systems as steady state thermal machines. In order to successfully carry out the work proposed here, the applicant will build a world class team at Trinity College Dublin. Due to his track record and interdisciplinary background in many-body physics, quantum information and statistical mechanics combined with his personal drive and ambition the applicant is in a formidable position to successfully undertake this task with the platform provided by this ERC Starting Grant.

Keywords: quantum thermodynamics,open quantum systems,many body localization,spin transport,energy transport,disordered systems
TechCapMarkets: Improving access for innovative SMEs to Funding via EU Capital Markets (TechCapMarkets)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Industrial Leadership
Action type: Coordination and support actions
Countries involved: Spain,Bulgaria,Belgium,France
Call: Improving access by innovative SMEs to alternative forms of finance (H2020-ALTFI-2017, 2017)
Start date: 2018-04-01
End date: 2020-03-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 547650.0
EU funding (EUR): 547650.0
Participants: 4
Project status: CLOSED

TechCap Markets will address a specific challenge in improving access by innovative SMEs to alternative finance: the lack of connectivity with exit markets such as stock exchanges and emerging growth markets for trading shares in private innovative SMEs. This lack of connectivity for both alternative finance providers and innovative SMEs is characterized by: - Lack of opportunity for Initial Purchase Offers (IPOs) for innovative SMEs in Europe - Challenges to trading privately held shares in Innovative SMEs - Sub-optimal use of public market investment vehicles in raising venture capital funds - Difficulty to raise capital via further issuances by listed innovative SMEs/Tech companies It will pursue the following objectives: - Establishing a High-Level Advisory Group and series of Expert Working Groups and capture the latest market expertise via these groups to deliver: o a whitepaper for exchange operators and policy makers containing best practice in public policy, regulatory environments and market operations and make recommendations as appropriate o develop a practical “how to” tool kit for innovative SMEs and alternative finance providers to access exchanges - Produce learning material tailored to different stakeholder groups and prepare and implement a capacity building plan for all stakeholders - Create awareness about exits to stock exchanges and the use of secondary market places The consortium is composed of 3 partners, designed to maximize the effectiveness of bringing together senior market practitioners and gathering and deploying their expertise. The partners specific expertise covers the individual requirements of the project: EUN - the current relationship between innovative SMEs and alternative finance providers such as BA and VC investors. IESE - world class research capabilities at the nexus of entrepreneurship and capital markets; PMEF - think tank of professionals in financing for entrepreneurs with strong public policy expertise.

Keywords: capital markets,risk capital,alternative financing sources,funding escalator,venture capital,crowdfunding,crowd sourced equity,private equity funds,business angels,growth smes,exits
Ideas and Legitimating Discourse in EU and US Agricultural Policy-Making and their Implications for Transatlantic Trade Relations (AGRIDEASCOURSE.TRADE)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: Marie-Sklodowska-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Individual Fellowships (IF)-Global Fellowships
Action type: Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions
Panel: Social Sciences and Humanities
Countries involved: Netherlands,United States
Call: Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF-GF) (H2020-MSCA-IF-2014, 2014)
Start date: 2016-08-01
End date: 2019-07-31
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 260929.8
EU funding (EUR): 260929.8
Participants: 2
Project status: CLOSED

This project comparatively investigates divergence and convergence in agricultural policy ideas and policies in the EU and the US and their interaction with multilateral and transatlantic trade negotiations. Applying an innovative Discursive Institutionalist approach, it uncovers whether and how ideas and discourse affect processes of policy transformation. It thus contributes to an ‘ideational turn’ in the field of Agricultural Policy Studies which is currently dominated by rationalist interest-based explanations. The outcomes of this research will not only explain the dynamics of agricultural policy change and their effect on past trade negotiations, it will also provide policy makers with insights in the opportunities and limits to develop agricultural policies that are both domestically acceptable and conducive to ongoing transatlantic and international trade negotiations (e.g. TTIP and WTO). This is highly significant considering the important role of agricultural trade policies in tackling the pressing food and environmental challenges of today and tomorrow. This GF will strengthen the relationship between EU and US agricultural policy research and will establish the fellow in a leading position in the field, simultaneously making her a valuable interlocutor for European policy actors. The project’s training activities are ultimately geared towards making the fellow eligible for a position of Associate Professor by providing a fundamental contribution to a) developing and consolidating her independent and innovative line of research in the role of ideas and discourse – ideational causation – in policy making; b) enhancing her research excellence through her publication profile, and c) forging knowledge networks bridging academia and the public policy sector, building lasting relationships for the exchange of knowledge and policy advice.

Keywords: ideas,discourse,discursive institutionalism,agricultural policy,transatlantic trade relations,qualitative research methods
Blue Acid/Base Battery: Storage and recovery of renewable electrical energy by reversible salt water dissociation (BAoBaB)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Societal Challenges
Programme: Secure, clean and efficient energy
Theme: A single, smart European electricity grid
Action type: Research and Innovation actions
Countries involved: Italy,Spain,Netherlands,Netherlands,Netherlands
Call: Next generation innovative technologies enabling smart grids, storage and energy system integration with increasing share of renewables: distribution network (H2020-LCE-2016-SGS, 2016)
Start date: 2017-05-01
End date: 2021-07-31
Duration (months): 51.0
Total project cost (EUR): 3998750.0
EU funding (EUR): 3998750.0
Participants: 6
Project status: CLOSED

The “Blue Acid/Base Battery” (BAoBaB), stores electrical energy using pH and salinity differences in water. The principle of BAoBaB is altering the acid-base balance by means of an excess of available electricity to obtain an acid and base from its corresponding salt solution. When electricity is needed, acid and base are recombined into their corresponding salt solution again while obtaining electrical work from the entropy and enthalpy gain. Our goal is to develop this totally new, environment-friendly, cost-competitive, scalable, water-based electrical energy storage system from TRL3 to TRL5. Our objectives are: 1. to establish and extend the potential of BAoBaB to become a reliable and environmentally friendly way of storing (renewable) electricity at kWh-MWh scale for application at user premises or at substation level. 2. to understand and enhance mass transfer in round-trip conversion techniques and hence to improve the energy conversion efficiencies of the BAoBaB system, aiming an efficiency >80% and >10 times higher energy density than in Pumped Hydropower Storage. 3. to validate under accepted utility use conditions an automatically operated BAoBaB system (with corresponding battery management) at a scale of 1 kW power and 7 kWh energy storage. 4. To pave the road for cost competitive energy storage with attention to life-cycle cost and performance, aiming at <0.05 €/kWh/cycle. BAoBaB operates at a timescale of hours to days, and hence will enable a larger penetration degree of distributed and intermittent renewable energy sources. Not only the storage capacities are huge (kWh to MWh), resources are plentiful (salt and water) and environmental risks are minimal. Together with the location independence and non-toxic nature, penetration rate can be high within the EU and outside, providing the EU export opportunities.

Keywords: electrical energy storage,battery,bipolar membrane,ph gradient,salinity gradient
Probing the origin of intergalactic magnetic fields and cosmic rays with gamma-ray cascades (GammaRayCascades)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: Marie-Sklodowska-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Individual Fellowships (IF)-Reintegration panel
Action type: Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions
Panel: Physics
Countries involved: Germany
Call: Individual Fellowships (H2020-MSCA-IF-2018, 2018)
Start date: 2019-10-01
End date: 2021-09-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 174806.4
EU funding (EUR): 174806.4
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The existence of an intergalactic magnetic field (IGMF) remains elusive and only upper limits on its strength are known from limits on the rotation of polarization angles of radio waves. Its measurement would provide crucial information about large scale structure formation, since the IGMF is thought to act as a seed field for magnetic fields in galaxies and galaxy clusters, how the Universe evolved, and how charged cosmic rays and electromagnetic waves propagate through intergalactic space. Here, I propose a new search for IGMF signatures using observations of a high-energy gamma-ray cascades from distant galaxies. Gamma rays interact with background radiation fields to produce electron-positron pairs. These pairs up-scatter cosmic-microwave photons to gamma-ray energies, initiating the cascade. The IGMF morphology is imprinted on the cascade through a deflection of the pairs in the IGMF. A novel combination of observations with imaging air Cherenkov telescopes and the Fermi Large Area Telescope, using both spectral and spatial information, combined with precise model predictions of the cascade, promise an unprecedented sensitivity for detection of the cascade signal and the IGMF. Strong constraints on the IGMF strength will be possible if no cascade is detected. Furthermore, I will also search for a gamma-ray and neutrino signal from cascades initiated by cosmic rays from active galaxies. This will yield an independent probe of the IGMF and, additionally, constraints on the cosmic-ray acceleration power of such galaxies. As part of this work, I will also make predictions how the future Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) can further improve the detection of or constraints on the IGMF and the cosmic-ray acceleration power of active galaxies. This will result in an optimized observation strategy for the extragalactic survey and the blazar monitoring program, which are both planned with CTA.

Keywords: intergalactic magnetic fields,cosmic rays,gamma ray propagation
Enabling the large-scale deployment of Facial Recognition in banking security (FACCESS)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Societal Challenges
Programme: Secure societies - protecting freedom and security of Europe and its citizens
Action type: SME instrument
Countries involved: Spain
Call: Critical infrastructure protection topic 7: SME instrument topic: Protection of Urban soft targets and critical infrastructures (H2020-SMEINST-1-2015, 2015)
Start date: 2015-09-01
End date: 2016-01-31
Duration (months): 5.0
Total project cost (EUR): 71429.0
EU funding (EUR): 50000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

In the FACCESS project we aim at performing a pilot study for the large-scale implementation of our face recognition technology in banking security. There is strong demand in the banking industry for secure biometric applications. In fact, in May 2014 the European Central Bank (ECB) published a list of recommendations for increased bank transaction security and for the first time, biometrics was included as one of most valid and securest authentication parameters. Security has been always a major concern of the banking industry, fundamentally because banks are attractive to criminals as a direct access to currency, bank notes, and user‘s personal information which can be used for identity theft (phishing and card skimming). The concerns about bank security have always been there, but it has been after the breakthrough of online and mobile banking when bank fraud has become major issue to address with urgency. Currently, whether it’s online, on a smartphone, on an ATM or on a POS (point-of-sale), the great majority of banking transactions are done by using a 4-6 digits PIN code as the way for authentication. This form of authentication is of an extremely low security level in all cases, but especially more in online banking where cybercriminals and hackers can easily obtain this PIN code in a matter of seconds. As a result, the total value of fraudulent transactions is rapidly increasing year by year, being now estimated at €1.33 billion solely in Europe. In this scenario, biometrics holds great promise to become the gold standard authentication method for bank transactions in the near future. However, despite the clear opportunity there are still some barriers preventing the banking biometrics breakthrough, at least on a large scale. Our Facial recognition technology gathers the ideal features to overcome these barriers, representing a great opportunity to definitively bring biometric authentication to banking security.

Keywords: biometrics,facial recognition