Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Functional metabolites: Investigation of terpenoid biosynthesis in grapes. (GRAPENOIDS)

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: Denmark
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2010-IOF, 2010)
Start date: 2011-04-01
End date: 2014-03-31
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 285579.2
EU funding (EUR): 285579.2
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The “Grapenoids” project consists of a 24 month outgoing phase to the Wine Innovation Cluster of the University of Adelaide, in collaboration with the Australia Wine Research Institute (AWRI), and a 12 month return phase to the University of Copenhagen. The work undertaken in “Grapenoids” will combine state of the art analytical chemistry and molecular biology techniques in the world's leading grape and wine research institute to identify terpenoids that act as flavour and aroma compounds. Despite their importance as flavour and aroma compounds, very little is currently known about terpenoids in grapes. In groundbreaking research carried out at the AWRI, the compound responsible for the peppery aroma of a number of plants, including some varieties of grapes, was recently identified as the sesquiterpenoid, rotundone. This discovery was made through chemical analysis, and thus the molecular basis for rotundone biosynthesis is not yet known. This example demonstrates the potential for a comprehensive investigation and characterisation of terpene biosynthesis genes from grapes to yield new and interesting functional metabolites. The "Grapenoids" project will be undertaken during a period when the interest in functional terpenoids is greatly expanding in the EU. A number of European research institutes and small biotechnology companies are currently investigating the potential for producing scientifically and commercially interesting terpenoids in metabolically engineered systems. A key outcome of "Grapenoids" will be the introduction of a number of novel terpenoid biosynthesis enzymes to the European research community in the return phase, with heterologous expression to be carried out in a metabolically engineered moss under development at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

Keywords: enology,genetic engineering,molecular biology,molecular evolution
Visualising Electrocatalysis at the Nanoscale (VISELCAT)

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-2010-IEF, 2010)
Start date: 2011-06-01
End date: 2013-05-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 199549.6
EU funding (EUR): 199549.6
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

This proposal defines new and unique approaches to the study of electrocatalytic processes at the level of an individual nanoparticle (NP). The project marries the considerable achievements of Dr. Stanley Lai in electrocatalysis (PhD, Leiden) with that of the Electrochemistry and Interfaces Group at the University of Warwick, in high resolution electrochemistry and imaging, to create new frontier research in functional imaging of electrocatalysis. The scientific programme involves the development and application of innovative nanoscale electrochemical imaging techniques which will allow individual NPs to be produced directly on surfaces in a well-defined way, and their individual activity investigated, so that the electrocatalytic responses can be related to NP size, structure and environment. Moreover, the nanoscale methods will allow the investigation of individual NPs within an ensemble, to determine - for the first time - the range of electrocatalytic responses that operate, which is a major open question. The focus is on noble metal NPs and model fuel cell reactions, so that the results will be of immediate interest and impact to the field. The NPs will be produced on novel carbon electrode supports (graphene, single-walled carbon nanotubes, graphite and conducting diamond), in view of the considerable excitement in such materials worldwide for electrocatalysis and electroanalysis. The project will derive significant benefit from impressive facilities, equipment and infrastructure at the Host Institution, including major recent investment in state of the art high resolution microscopy and spectroscopy for materials characterisation. With considerable support and world-leading expertise from the Host group and its collaborators, this project will provide Dr. Lai with an outstanding opportunity to develop personally and professionally, by pioneering a new area of research in a new geographic location.

Keywords: physical sciences,chemistry,electrochemistry,instrumental techniques,surface chemistry,catalysis
Initialization of global decadal climate forecast: a new challenge for multi-scale data assimilation (INCLIDA)

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-2010-IEF, 2010)
Start date: 2012-02-01
End date: 2014-01-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 166565.6
EU funding (EUR): 166565.6
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Decadal prediction has emerged nowadays as a main concern in the climate science community. Improving the forecast on the time scales of 10-30 years is expected to carry tremendous value for the society, supporting plans for infrastructure upgrades, financial decisions or energy policies. Decadal predictions are in between the seasonal forecast (6-12 months) and the climate prediction (on the scale of a century) and share a number of physical and dynamical features of both. The decadal time range is at the confluence of forecasting, such as that performed in seasonal prediction, having a marked predictable signal in the initial state and the long term climate prediction driven mainly from external forcing and fully independent from the initial state. Refined observing networks for the ocean component are now available (see e.g. the ARGO project at www-argo.ucsd.edu, or SMOS mission of ESA) and contribute also to promising future improvements in forecast quality. Data assimilation is the field of geosciences that study the problem of state estimation of evolving, possibly chaotic, dynamical system on the base of incomplete, inhomogeneous and noisy observations. Data assimilation is regarded nowadays with strong interest from the climate science community, because of the potential to improve decadal prediction by introducing adequate initialization process for the whole climate system, making the best use of the current observations. Several fundamental unresolved questions need to be addressed to adapt existing data assimilation algorithms as well as to develop new strategies for the Earth system models used in decadal prediction. Testing different data assimilation approaches and contributing to the current open debate on how to improve initialized decadal prediction are the main motivations of the proposed research. The project ultimate goal is the implementation of a state-of-the-art data assimilation technique for the initialization of the IC3 EC-Earth model.

Keywords: natural sciences,climate modelling (climate change),global change mitigation strategies (climate change),chaos theory,statistics,mathematical physics,environmental physics
An adaptive multi-scale approach to the computational study of glycerol dehydration (MULTI-SCALE GLYCEROL)

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-2010-IEF, 2010)
Start date: 2011-04-01
End date: 2013-03-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 178548.0
EU funding (EUR): 178548.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The objective of this research is to develop and apply computational methods for the investigation of chemical reactivity in any aqueous, catalytic, or biological environment. This will result in a complete multi-scale strategy for effective and accurate investigation of these complex processes. The applicant will develop new methods for efficient electronic structure calculations and strategically combine them with state of the art rare events techniques, and a whole range of available tools for the study of molecular processes. The methods will be directly applied to find the optimal mechanism for conversion of glycerol to lactic acid. Glycerol is a model poly-alcohol, and its study will provide new insights into selective dehydration in general, and will play an important role in the development of new processes for the valorization of biomass. The dehydration/dehydrogenation process converting glycerol to lactic acid, when optimized, has the potential to become the main route for successful recycling of this biodiesel by-product. In the longer term, the study can be extended to the transformation processes of a whole range of compounds extracted from biomass. The applicant currently has extensive experience with the development of multi-scale methods and rare events techniques. In particular, she has developed an adaptive QM/MM technique that is among the first to allow efficient and accurate simulations on reactions in solution. She will, in the course of the project, adapt this technique specifically for the accurate description of proton transfer processes, of which dehydration reaction is a common example. The host group has a remarkable track record in the quantum chemical treatment of chemical reactions and heterogeneous catalysis. The combined contributions of the applicant and the host group will result in an all-round and unique approach to the study of aqueous reactions in an environment that can directly be compared to experimental conditions.

Keywords: adaptive qm/mm,dehydration,glycerol,proton transfer,heterogeneous catalysis
Workers' organization in the informal sector (INFOWORK)

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: United Kingdom
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2010-IOF, 2010)
Start date: 2012-07-01
End date: 2015-06-30
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 251817.4
EU funding (EUR): 251817.4
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The research proposal aims at offering new insights into precarious workers’ self-organising and collective resistance under globalised capitalism. Through in-depth ethnographic studies in the informal sector economy of the city of Buenos Aires, the research will explore the forms, methods, alliances and organizational models, used by workers to counter-oppose their precarious working and income conditions. Precariousness, informality, fragmentation, insecurity and inequality are becoming increasingly dominant patterns of employment not just in a developing country like Argentina but also across Europe. Within this context, further strengthened by the current economic crisis, not just the Lisbon strategy of making Europe competitive through more and better jobs needs to be reviewed but also makes reality predictions of a ‘brazilianization’ of dominant economies, seen as increasingly dominated by an economic scenario based on informality and precariousness . Thus, in this perspective the analysis of informal work in the city of Buenos Aires may reflect a not far too distant future for the social cohesion and employment conditions of Europe, calling governments and social institutions to take action. At the same time, it invites trade unions to move beyond purely institutional policy making roles and toward strategies and actions to enlarge the representation of workers in precarious employment.

Keywords: sociology of labour,informal work,precarious employment,collective action,argentina,globalization
The Impact of Hybridization on Functional Diversification - Experimental Evolution with Sexual Microbes (HYBRAD)

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-2010-IEF, 2010)
Start date: 2012-02-01
End date: 2014-08-25
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 209592.8
EU funding (EUR): 209592.8
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

An underexplored aspect in the evolution of biodiversity is the role of interspecific hybridization. Hybridization is hypothesized to increase the functional diversity of adaptive radiations, potentially yielding ecological speciation. Yet, direct evidence for this is lacking. We propose to apply a large-scale, quantitative approach using experimental evolution with yeast to test this fundamental theory of quantitative genetics. Yeast is a powerful system because it permits the simulation of eukaryotic evolutionary processes while allowing easy access to information on geno- and phenotype. First, we will generate artificial radiations from hybrid and non-hybrid ancestors and expose them to diversifying selection using high-throughput phenotypic microarrays, simulating a heterogeneous fitness landscape. We will then compare the functional diversity obtained in radiations with and without hybrid background. Second, we will test if phenotypic novelty (transgressive segregation) observed in hybrids increases with genetic and phenotypic distance between their parents. Third, to test if there are stereotypical genetic changes accompanying divergence during adaptive radiation we will resequence parallel and divergent selected strains of yeast. Besides theoretical aspects, these data may reveal applications for commercial exploitation of phenotypic novelty in yeast. An improved understanding of genetic exchange in fungi can also be crucial for medical/veterinary sciences, epidemiology, and conservation biology. Training in experimental evolution and state of the art technology (SOLiD sequencing and metabolic fingerprinting) are of key importance to the future competitiveness of the fellow. This project delivers the following aspects of the work program: Improvement of EU scientific excellence through new scientific networks, training of a future research group leader both directly and through mobility, and enhancing EU competitiveness through high profile output

Keywords: evolutionary biology,ecological genetics,macroevolution,adaptive radiation,hybridisation,transgressive segregation,genetic distance,yeast,high-throughput sequencing,phenotypic microarrays
Long-Term e-Health Evolution for Improving Diabetic Social and Behavioural Change Management (LTE-HEALTH)

Framework: FP7 — People
Programme: Marie-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: International Incoming Fellowships
Action type: Support for training and career development of researchers (Marie Curie)
Countries involved: United Kingdom
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2010-IIF, 2010)
Start date: 2012-01-16
End date: 2014-01-15
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 279680.0
EU funding (EUR): 279680.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

One of the key advances in recent healthcare technology innovations has been in the emerging mobile and network technologies for disease management, especially chronic diseases and diabetes in particular. The sharp increase of obesity linked with Type-1 diabetes in children and young population is becoming alarming in the UK and the European countries in general. Most of current projects and research studies that address self-management of diabetes and obesity focus on the functionality, technological and mobility issues but not on behavioural changes and acceptability challenges of these systems. To date, there is no study that addresses these major challenges and issues relating to the patients' adaptability (especially the younger population) with their health carers toward their self-diabetes management using emergent ICT technologies. This problem is more acute in diabetic and obese patients that do not adhere to their medications and in need of emotional support to maintain a more effective healthy behaviour (e.g. diet, exercise, medication compliance, etc.). This project will aim to research, design and develop a new and innovative platform and tools using a combination of long-term evolution wireless technologies linked with interactive robotic coaching technologies and intelligent decision support machines. Novel prediction and decision support algorithms based on reality health data mining, context awareness and artificial intelligence will be developed. These algorithms will then be used to process the information collected from the patients, via their in-home and mobile devices, and provide the necessary adaptable changes of the behavioural and medications preferences for the patients according to their individual needs. A prototype system which incorporates all these emerging technologies will be developed and its performance will be evaluated with the collaborating medical NHS partners in the UK and other European collaborating institutes.

Keywords: technological sciences
Nanocomposite approaches for the deposition of highly active photocatalytic thin films with plasma technology (NANOHAP)

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: Germany
Call:  (FP7-PEOPLE-2010-IEF, 2010)
Start date: 2012-01-01
End date: 2013-12-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 163242.4
EU funding (EUR): 163242.4
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Photocatalysis is a potential tool for environmental and effluent water cleaning. Large band gap semiconductors, first of all TiO2, are commonly employed as photocatalysts. However, most of the photocatalytic materials possess band-gaps corresponding to the Ultra-Violet (UV) wavelengths (220-380 nm) and suffer from low efficiencies due to the high degree of recombination between the photogenerated charges carriers. The challenge is to develop a material with optical band gap in the visible wavelength of the sun’s spectrum (400 nm – 900 nm) and with a suitable flat band potential for efficient charge transfer across the interface. In addition, for many applications it is essential to use photocatalytically active materials in the form of thin films. The proposed work aims at developing a new thin film photocatalytic material to work at visible wavelengths of sun’s spectrum by the modification of TiO2. Two approaches will be followed: (i) nano-mixed phases of wide band gap metal oxides (like WO3 and CuO) and (ii) nano metal cluster (like e.g. Ag-, Cu-, W- clusters) embedded in a wide gap metal oxide as TiO2 is. Both approaches are aimed at influencing the photo-generated carriers and their transport. The nano mixed phases have altogether different band gaps, defect states and defect densities which will influence the electron – hole pair generation with visible wavelengths. The fabrication of the coatings will be carried out making use of the plasma technology, and especially of sputtering. In fact, this is a very advantageous technique for the deposition of crystalline TiO2 thin films over a wide variety of substrates (e.g. glass, Si-wafer, metal) a low temperatures. Moreover, sputtering is also one of the most feasible methods for the deposition of metal ions and oxide nanoparticles over a thin film matrix, e.g. of TiO2, due to its versatility and the capability of controlling the phisycal properties of the particles by a proper choice of preparation parameters.

Keywords: materials engineering,environmental chemistry,plasma technology,sputtering,thin film deposition,large area coatings,highly actives photocatalysts,titanium dioxides,nanocomposites
Knowledge flows within emerging multinationals: the case of subsidiaries of Latin multinationals in Europe (KNOWLEDGE FLOWS)

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-2010-IEF, 2010)
Start date: 2011-06-01
End date: 2014-07-25
Duration (months): 30.0
Total project cost (EUR): 262936.8
EU funding (EUR): 262936.8
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Firms from emerging countries are increasingly expanding their global presence by directly investing abroad and becoming multinationals on their own right. Those so-called emerging multinationals (E-MNCs) are gaining space in the global business arena, largely dominated by multinationals from the triadic countries. Studies so far have focused on the factors driving E-MNCs to engage in foreign direct investment. A central issue is whether the E-MNCs possess competitive advantages that can be exploited abroad, or if they are in fact seeking for acquiring and developing such advantages overseas. This research proposal intends to bridge a gap in the research on E-MNCs by focusing on the European subsidiaries of Latin American MNCs (LA-MNCs). It addresses the question of how multinationalisation of developing countries’ firms affects innovation and knowledge flows within them, and between them and their host economies. Our objective is to identify the patterns of knowledge flows to and from the European subsidiaries of LA-MNCs by analyzing the exchange of knowledge between them and: 1) their headquarters, and 2) host economies. The main expected outcome of this study is the understanding of to what extent the European subsidiaries of LA-MNCs: 1) send knowledge to and receive knowledge from their parent headquarters in Latin America; and 2) source in and contribute with positive spillovers to the knowledge base of their European hosts. This research proposal deals with highly complex phenomena, innovation and multinational corporations; it is interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary in essence, and integrates concepts and methods from several fields of economics and international business. The methodological approach combines different methods and sources of information. We will carry out both a survey of headquarter of LA-MNCs and multi-case studies of European subsidiaries of LA-MNCs; and rely on both primary and secondary sources of quantitative and qualitative data.

Keywords: innovation studies,knowledge flows,multinational corporations,multinational subsidiaries,applied economics,business analysis,knowledge economy,industrial economics,international business studies