Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
The role of layer-specific population receptive field properties in visual recurrent processing (FFvsFB-UHF-fMRI)

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: Life Sciences
Countries involved: Germany
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2021 (HORIZON-MSCA-2021-PF-01, 2021)
Start date: 2022-10-01
End date: 2024-09-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 189687.36
EU funding (EUR): 189687.36
Participants: 2
Project status: CLOSED

Visual perception has long been cast as an inference process, in which feedforward sensory signals are integrated with expectation-related feedback. For every feedforward sensory pathway, there is a reciprocal feedback projection, yet standard models continue to represent vision as a feedforward hierarchical network. Such models fail, however, when confronted with cases in which global spatial context, expectations, or other higher-order cognitive functions affect local processing. The characterization of the distinct roles and mechanisms of feedforward and feedback processing is thus crucial for better models of vision. Based on the theory of predictive coding, a proposed implementation of visual inference, we propose the receptive field (RF) as the mechanism by which feedforward and feedback processes interact. We present three projects that harness recent advances in neuroimaging techniques, allowing in vivo imaging of recurrent processing in humans. Ultra-high field (UHF) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) enables a hitherto impossible investigation of layer-specific cortical processing, with different cortical layers receiving input from either feedforward or feedback channels. We will leverage the sub-millimeter spatial resolution of UHF fMRI, together with population receptive field (pRF) mapping, to target feedforward and feedback RF properties in two behavioral paradigms - visual crowding and Mooney image disambiguation. Crowding is dependent on global spatial context, recruiting recurrent processing between early and mid-level visual areas, whereas the prior object knowledge manipulation involved in Mooney image disambiguation targets early to high visual areas. The investigation of the contextual modulation of layer-specific pRF properties will help elucidate the mechanisms by which higher cortical areas affect early sensory processing - a long-standing question in neuroscience, whose resolution is essential to the progress of vision research.

Keywords: feedforward and feedback processing,ultra high field fmri,layer specific fmri,population receptive field mapping,predictive coding,visual crowding,mooney images,structure function coupling
Ideology in Context: An Agential Approach to the Study of Houthism (IDEO-YEMEN)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Advanced grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Studies of Cultures and Arts
Panel description: Social anthropology, studies of cultur es, stud ies of arts
Countries involved: Austria,Ireland,United Kingdom
Call: ERC ADVANCED GRANTS (ERC-2024-ADG, 2024)
Start date: 2026-05-01
End date: 2031-04-30
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2498641.0
EU funding (EUR): 2498641.0
Participants: 3
Project status: SIGNED

The stellar rise of the Yemen’s Houthis (Ansar Allah) is not just a story of military conquest but also of ideological innovation, which has transformed northern Yemen and reshaped power relations in the Middle East. Despite their importance, the unanswered question of what the Houthis “really” want still looms large in academic debates and political circles. This project will transform our understanding of the Houthis by analysing their massive ideological output and triangulating it with a vast corpus of unexplored indigenous sources and findings from digital (remote) fieldwork. As the first study of its kind, this project pursues three primary objectives: (1) Provide unprecedented insights into Houthi ideology and its interplay with Yemen’s social, intellectual, historical, religious, and institutional frameworks, including its foreign inspirations, media, and symbolic and ritual expressions. (2) Explore Houthi ideology’s dual nature as both a normative discourse and an everyday practice, offering empirically informed understandings of how ideology operates and impacts local communities, and (3) use Houthi ideology as a case study to develop a novel “agential” and multiscalar theoretical approach to the study of ideology within social and cultural anthropology, and related fields. The results of this project will redefine the anthropology of ideology and provide unparalleled insights into the Houthi phenomenon. Its innovative theoretical and methodological contributions will advance social and cultural anthropology, enhancing its relevance and providing novel approaches and tools for studying emerging ideologies in similar contexts globally. On a trans-disciplinary level, the results will inform and revise diplomatic, political, and humanitarian efforts to better understand the crisis in Yemen and develop tailored, sustainable solutions.

Keywords: yemen,anthropology of ideology,social history,intellectual history,houthis,zaydism,religion,governance
What’s wrong? Ancient corrections in Greek papyri from Egypt (AnCor)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Texts and Concepts
Panel description: Literary studies , literature,  philosophy
Countries involved: Netherlands
Call: ERC STARTING GRANTS (ERC-2024-STG, 2024)
Start date: 2025-08-01
End date: 2030-07-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1499279.0
EU funding (EUR): 1499279.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

This project aims to transform the study of the Ancient Greek language by shifting the focus away from famous literary authors towards the language as it was produced in everyday life. The large corpus of 60.000 Greek texts written on papyrus between 300 BCE and 800 CE provides an important source for our knowledge of the ancient world and offers an excellent opportunity to study the Greek language as written by non-scholarly writers in antiquity. In order to really change our views of what ‘correct’ Ancient Greek should look like, we need to take a different perspective: the perspective of the ancient writer. What did the writers perceive as a mistake? How did they compose their texts? In order to answer these questions this project employs an innovative resource: the corrections made by the ancient writers themselves. A multidisciplinary team of three researchers and a student-assistant will analyse scribal corrections at different levels of language production (from spelling and morphology to semantics and phraseology) across a range of different genres (contracts, petitions, letters and lists) with the following three key objectives: (1) to create an annotated open-access relational database of ancient corrections in Greek papyri, (2) to study the production of Greek spelling from below, as corrected by the ancient writers themselves, comparatively in different genres, written by writers from diverse backgrounds, (3) to identify the stage of composition of a textual object and make this category an integrated part of the analysis of historical textual artifacts, such as papyrus documents. This will give us a unique perspective at the Greek language and allow us for the first time to study what is ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ in the Postclassical Greek language in daily practice. The outcomes of this project will change how we perceive non-scholarly writers and thereby contribute to a new and more inclusive perspective on ancient societies.

Keywords: greek papyrology,language of papyri
PAInful Decisions - How chronic pain affects daily decision-making (PAID)

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: Life Sciences
Countries involved: Poland,Australia
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2021 (HORIZON-MSCA-2021-PF-01, 2021)
Start date: 2023-08-01
End date: 2025-07-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 158485.44
EU funding (EUR): 158485.44
Participants: 2
Project status: CLOSED

Fibromyalgia (FM) is a chronic pain syndrome characterized by widespread pain, multiple tender points, fatigue, and impaired mental functioning. Best practice interventions for chronic pain typically include effortful exercise and long-term treatment – i.e., short-term costs (effort) with delayed benefit (improved pain and function). Problematically, adherence to these treatments is often low, suggesting that people with chronic pain may have altered decision-making related to delayed and effortful rewards. Understanding if long-term pain influences decision-making, what aspects of long-term pain contribute most to decision-making (e.g., emotional versus physical), and the neural underpinnings, are essential given clear relevance of altered decision-making to the adherence to evidence-based management strategies. The PAInful Decisions (PAID) project will address these critical aspects by evaluating delay and effort attitudes in those experiencing FM and in a group of matched pain-free controls. Additionally, I will investigate the unique role of emotions and bodily sensation perception as potential contributing factors to altered decision-making involving delayed and effortful gratification. PAID is a highly innovative and interdisciplinary project, integrating approaches from experimental psychology, behavioural economics, clinical practice, psychophysiology, and neuroimaging. This way, I will be able to comprehensively investigate the role of body-brain interactions in the context of chronic pain. Such a systematic, selective, and interdisciplinary approach to study decision-making in chronic pain is a considerable research challenge, yet the results have an essential meaning for patients’ life and clinical practice, offering to move basic and applied science forward.

Keywords: fibromyalgia decision making brain body interactions fmri emotions
Targeting the vascular-immune interface to induce anti-tumor immunity (VASC-IMMUNE)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Synergy grants
Action type: ERC actions
Countries involved: Sweden,Germany
Call: ERC SYNERGY GRANTS (ERC-2024-SyG, 2024)
Start date: 2025-02-01
End date: 2031-01-31
Duration (months): 72.0
Total project cost (EUR): 9453750.0
EU funding (EUR): 9453750.0
Participants: 2
Project status: SIGNED

In this ERC Synergy Grant, we will characterize the vascular-immune interface in melanoma and glioblastoma and explore the perivascular niche as a site for local anti-tumor immune activation. Cancer immunotherapy has made tremendous progress in the last two decades, but a vast majority of cancer patients do not benefit from this progress yet. Refinement of established immunotherapies will undoubtedly increase response rates. However, conceptually brave new therapies must be developed to make additional breakthroughs. The tumor vasculature plays a key role in orchestrating anti-tumor immunity by regulating recruitment and activation of T-cell and other immune cells. We propose to make a detailed characterization of vascular immune landscapes in melanoma and glioblastoma and to utilize this to optimize vascular-immune crosstalk and immune response as a new breakthrough immunotherapy. This proposal builds upon new knowledge on how immune hubs can form around tumor vasculature, which to a large part is based upon novel findings and development by the applicants (1, 2) on the importance of perivascular antigen-presenting niches in activating, sustaining, and executing CD8 and CD4 T-cell-mediated immune attacks on cancer. We will develop tumor vessel targeting AAV vectors that can enable therapeutic induction of immune hubs in cancer. This new form of immunotherapy will be evaluated alone and in combination with established cancer immunotherapies. Combined, our research teams are in a unique position to achieve this goal. Synergistic advancements will be obtained by joining Dimberg’s expertise in the vascular and immune microenvironment in tumors (especially glioblastoma); Tüting’s expertise in tumor immunology and cell plasticity (especially melanoma); and Essand’s expertise in translational gene therapy and cancer immunotherapy. The project is timely, and if successful can bring immunotherapy to the next level, rendering new hope to millions of cancer patients.

Keywords: tertiary lymphoid structures,antigen presenting niches,high endothelial venules,stem like t cells,glioblastoma,melanoma,tumor vascular biology,tumor immunology,cancer immunotherapy,aav therapy,mouse models
Automated Model Discovery for Soft Matter Systems (DISCOVER)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Advanced grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Products and Processes Engineering
Panel description: Product and process design, chemical, civil, environmental, mechanical, vehicle engineering, energy processes and relevant computational methods
Countries involved: Germany
Call: ERC ADVANCED GRANTS (ERC-2023-ADG, 2023)
Start date: 2024-07-01
End date: 2029-06-30
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2775408.0
EU funding (EUR): 2775408.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Soft materials play an integral part in many aspects of modern life including autonomy, sustainability, and human health, and their accurate modeling is critical to understand their unique properties and functions. However, the criteria for model selection remain elusive and successful modeling is limited to a few well-trained specialists in the field. My goal is to democratize constitutive modeling through automated model discovery and make it accessible to a more inclusive and diverse community to accelerate scientific innovation. My overall objectives are: i) Establish a new family of constitutive neural networks that simultaneously and fully autonomously discover the model, parameters, and experiment that best explain a wide variety of soft matter systems; ii) Quantify the performance of our discovered models on tension, compression, and shear experiments for the heart, arteries, muscle, lung, liver, skin, brain, hydrogels, silicone, artificial meat, foams, and rubber; and iii) Quantify the uncertainty of our models, parameters, and experiments using a Bayesian analysis. My hypothesis is that automated model discovery will facilitate the exploration of a large parameter space of models and provide unprecedented insights into soft matter systems that are out of reach with conventional theoretical and numerical approaches today. My immediate deliverable is a fully documented open source scientific discovery platform that includes our new neural networks, experimental data, benchmarks, models, and parameters. This discovery platform has the potential to induce a ground-breaking change in constitutive modeling and will forever change how we simulate materials and structures. This project will democratize constitutive modeling; stimulate discovery in soft matter systems; provide deep-learning based tools to characterize, create, and functionalize soft matter; and train the next generation of scientists and engineers to adopt and promote these innovative technologies.

Keywords: soft matter biomaterials automated model discovery constitutive artificial neural networks physics inspired deep learning computational mechanics mathematical modeling uncertainty quantification constitutive modeling hyperelasticity
Single Chain Nanoparticles as SImplified Models of Intrinsically Disordered Proteins in CompLex CoAceRvates (SIMILAR)

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: Chemistry
Countries involved: Spain,France
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2024 (HORIZON-MSCA-2024-PF-01, 2024)
Start date: 2025-09-01
End date: 2027-08-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 209914.56
EU funding (EUR): 209914.56
Participants: 2
Project status: SIGNED

The study of intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) in cellular environments is complicated by their complex structures and dynamics, leading to challenges in understanding the role of topology in crowded media. Single-chain nanoparticles (SCNPs) have emerged as simplified synthetic models of IDPs, allowing researchers to explore structural and dynamical behaviors without the interference of molecular interactions. Recent advancements in SCNP synthesis methods for biopolymers and polyelectrolytes present new opportunities to study topological effects in complex phases such as polyelectrolyte complex (PEC) coacervates, which are vital for understanding phase separation in intracellular membraneless organelles. The objective of this research is to use model polypeptide SCNPs to elucidate the effects of their topology on the structure and dynamics of PEC coacervates. We hypothesize that the self-coiled structures of SCNPs influence the stoichiometric distribution of polyion charges, thereby affecting the phase behavior and dynamics of PEC coacervates. Our specific aims include: (1) the synthesis and characterization of polyelectrolyte SCNPs with varying morphologies, (2) investigating the impact of SCNP topology on the local structure of PEC coacervates, and (3) exploring dynamic signatures associated with topologically distinct coacervate structures. Utilizing state-of-the-art techniques such as small-angle neutron scattering, wide-angle X-ray scattering, and neutron spin echo, this project aims to advance our understanding of the topological effects in coacervation and contribute to the broader knowledge of phase behavior in both synthetic and biological systems.

Keywords: single chain nanoparticles,coacervation,polyelectrolyte complex,neutron scattering
Towards Shared Accountability: Rethinking the Locus and Scale of Assessment and Improvement in Education (ACCOUNTED)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Proof of concept grants
Action type: ERC actions
Countries involved: Spain
Call: ERC PROOF OF CONCEPT GRANTS (ERC-2023-POC, 2023)
Start date: 2024-06-01
End date: 2026-06-30
Duration (months): 25.0
Total project cost (EUR): 150000.0
EU funding (EUR): 150000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Accountability has emerged as a central feature of educational governance worldwide. However, the prevailing accountability approach in education, the so-called performance-based accountability (PBA), has led to adverse effects and discomfort among key stakeholders in the education sector. PBA, with its focus on individual schools as primary account providers, intensifies competitive pressures, fosters institutional fragmentation, and often stigmatizes disadvantaged schools. Recognizing these drawbacks, several governments are in the process of re-evaluating their accountability frameworks; this entails not only adjusting the measurement of performance outcomes but also giving greater attention to teaching-learning processes that were previously overlooked. Despite these efforts, ongoing reforms often overlook a crucial dimension: the scale at which accountability practices occur. ACCOUNTED asserts that optimizing accountability requires not only a shift in focus but also a change in the locus of account-giving practice: from individual schools to broader school networks. This recalibration of accountability, emphasizing shared responsibility among schools within a network, holds the key to fostering meaningful and cooperative relationships, initiating sustained improvement dynamics, and mobilizing additional educational resources at the local level. The effective implementation of this approach necessitates a meticulous policy design that organizes accountability relations and practices within the context of school networks. To bridge the gap between policy and practice, we propose testing and refining the 'shared accountability model' through a participatory design strategy involving real school actors. This innovative approach, by fostering collaboration and awareness among schools within networks, holds the potential to bring about positive transformations across the entire educational system, with a specific emphasis on advancing the well-being of disadvantaged schools.
Sourcing Hydrogen for Alternative Mobility, Realising Opportunities and Creating Know How in Ireland (SH2AMROCK)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness
Programme: Climate, Energy and Mobility
Theme: Public-private partnerships
Destination: Clean Hydrogen
Action type: Innovation actions
Partnership: CLEANH2 (JU-JTI)
Countries involved: Ireland,Slovenia,Ukraine,South Africa,North Macedonia,Belgium,Netherlands,Poland,United Kingdom,Spain,Italy,Germany,Cyprus
Call: Hydrogen Valleys (small-scale) (HORIZON-JTI-CLEANH2-2022-2, 2022)
Start date: 2024-01-01
End date: 2028-12-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 54806601.01
EU funding (EUR): 7582467.22
Participants: 30
Project status: SIGNED

SH2AMROCK - Ireland's Emerald Hydrogen Valley SH2AMROCK will deploy green hydrogen across key hard-to-abate sectors across the island of Ireland – including key infrastructure to enable the production, distribution, and use of green hydrogen. The 5 year-project, with a total investment of approximately €80m, will showcase the capacity of H2 to maximise penetration of RES through sector coupling, while facilitating widespread integration of renewable H2 into Ireland’s energy system. SH2AMROCK will realise this goal through the deployment of the country’s first hydrogen valley and multi-modal H2 transport hub in Galway – accelerating the island of Ireland’s energy transition and decarbonisation across multiple end-user applications.

Keywords: hydrogen,hydrogen valley