Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Viscoelastic Interactions of the Brain Tissue with Brain-Computer Interfaces (VIBraTE)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Widening Participation and Strengthening the European Research Area
Programme: Widening participation and spreading excellence
Theme: Attracting and mobilising the best talents
Destination: Attracting and mobilising the best talents
Action type: Coordination and support actions
Countries involved: Bulgaria
Call: ERA Chairs (HORIZON-WIDERA-2022-TALENTS-01, 2022)
Start date: 2023-02-01
End date: 2028-01-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2047797.5
EU funding (EUR): 2047797.5
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

IICT is an autonomous institute within the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. The VIBraTE project aims at enhancing the scientific excellence of IICT and its capacity to gain competitive research funding by establishing an ERA Chair focused on a better understanding of the interactions of implants with the brain tissue and the technologies to interface the human brain (i.e. brain-computer interfacing, BCI) and Deep Brain Stimulation devices. The high-level scientific objectives of the action are to: (i) investigate the viscoelastic coupling between the brain and implanted electrodes; (ii) optimize the interface geometry for invasive and non-invasive BCIs; (iii) model and investigate diffusion of substances around implants; (iv) model the mechanical effects on recorded brain activity. The Chair will open an experimental BCI lab, which will test model predictions in brain tissue phantom models and will close the loop between theory and experiment. The action will also establish a project management and technology office that will support the long-term funding strategy of the Chair and stakeholder interactions. The long-term ambition of the action is to enable the formation of a Bulgarian high-tech pole in neurotechnology. The prospective Chair relies on the combined expertise of the ERA Chair holder in neurotechnology and mathematical modeling with the relevant expertise in neural network models and scientific computing and signal processing, already available at the host. The VIBraTE chair will allow for the formation of a group with top expertise in Bulgaria, which will participate as an equal partner in international research programs and will become a central knowledge hub for neurotechnology in the country.

Keywords: deep brain stimulation viscoelasticity diffusion fractional order models neural network models simulation
Decoding enhancer usage and gene expression of human heart development in 3-D cardioids (3-D Cardioid)

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: 2022-09-01
End date: 2024-08-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 189687.36
EU funding (EUR): 189687.36
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

The early steps of heart formation during embryogenesis require precise spatiotemporal coordination between different heart progenitors to join together to form a beating heart tube. This complex biological process is regulated through an evolutionary conserved gene regulatory network (GRN) of transcription factors and cis-regulatory elements that integrate inductive signals from surrounding tissues to ensure correct heart development. Yet, how this process is controlled during heart development, and how mutations impacting the cardiac GRN leads to cardiomyopathies, remains unclear. There is currently little or no information about human heart enhancers during these early stages of heart development. Here, we will first determine the dynamic changes in the usage of regulatory elements and gene expression that accompanies human heart development using heart organoids (cardioids) derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells. To uncover the underlying GRN, we will apply scRNA-seq and scATAC-seq to 3-D cardioids at different stages of development, which will allow us to map enhancer usage during cell fate transitions in human heart development for the first time in vitro. Moreover, we will study how developmental trajectories are altered in disease-relevant mutant 3-D cardioids models. Last, we will study how perturbations of transcription factors influence enhancer function and gene expression by fine-tuning the nuclear level of key regulators using an optogenetic tool developed by the Furlong lab, which is extremely dynamic providing very precise temporal resolution, in the order of minutes. The functional impact of these perturbations will be assessed by scRNA-seq and scATAC-seq to identify the transcription factors’ regulatory mechanisms. Together, these findings will advance our understanding of gene regulation during cardiogenesis by identifying fundamental principles of enhancer usage and transcriptional changes during normal and diseased heart development.

Keywords: 3 d heart organoid,optogenetic,enhancers,transcription factors,cardiogenesis
CAPACITY BUILDING NEXUS FOR MONITORING WATER QUALITY IN MULTI-STRESSOR AREAS: PILOT STUDY AT THE HELLENIC VOLCANIC ARC (NEXUS-MONARC)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Widening Participation and Strengthening the European Research Area
Programme: Widening participation and spreading excellence
Theme: Improved access to Excellence
Destination: Improved access to Excellence
Action type: Coordination and support actions
Countries involved: Greece,Belgium,Sweden,Norway,Germany
Call: Twinning (HORIZON-WIDERA-2021-ACCESS-03, 2021)
Start date: 2023-01-01
End date: 2025-12-31
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1499750.0
EU funding (EUR): 1499750.0
Participants: 7
Project status: SIGNED

The NEXUS-MONARC project proposes a set of capacity building actions targeting to advance the profile of staff at the department of geology and geoenvironment and collaborating groups at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. Through these actions, a holistic approach to environmental monitoring will be developed for the marine environment of the Hellenic Volcanic Arc in the Mediterranean Sea, an environment that is influenced by multiple stressors of anthropogenic and natural origin, such as maritime transport, fisheries, industrial tourism, volcanic activity, hydrothermal venting, and others. The project objectives will be achieved through transferring knowledge and best practices based on the extensive expertise of partner institutions and by orchestrating citizen science activities. Short scientific missions synchronized to citizen science activities will lead to the development of novel collaborative research projects for the coordinating and partner institutions. Furthermore, twinning activities will incite local and international stakeholders from public, policy, and industry to participate and contribute to educational and scientific actions, thus actively improving the marine environment and protecting its inhabitants. Owing to training and collaborative actions, the improved administrative and management practices of the NEXUS-MONARC will be readily applicable to other multi-stressor marine environments in the world.

Keywords: multi stressor,marine,ecosystem,anthropogenic,natural,pollution
Tessellation-based analysis of dynamic protein structures and their complexes - MoleculAR MOTions meet TEssellations (MARMOTTE). (MARMOTTE)

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: Information Science and Engineering
Countries involved: France,Switzerland
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2021 (HORIZON-MSCA-2021-PF-01, 2021)
Start date: 2023-09-01
End date: 2025-08-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 195914.88
EU funding (EUR): 195914.88
Participants: 2
Project status: SIGNED

This year has seen a breakthrough in structural bioinformatics - deep learning-based methods, most notably Google DeepMind's AlphaFold2, have demonstrated near-experimental accuracy of protein structure predictions. However, even the best protein structure prediction methods do not automatically provide knowledge about protein dynamics and protein interactions, which is often essential to understand or predict the biological functions of proteins. Those functions are performed via intermolecular interactions, and such interactions almost always involve conformational changes of engaged partners. The problem of modeling dynamic protein structures and their complexes is still largely unsolved - this project aims to significantly contribute towards its future solution by exploring the link between computational geometry, statistical physics, and machine learning. The postdoctoral researcher will develop novel methods that: given a dynamic (moving) molecular structure, efficiently compute tessellation-derived contact areas; given a starting structure and its tessellation-derived contacts areas, predict (using a graph neural network) how the interatomic contact areas will change upon motion; given a protein complex model generated by docking, use the predicted statistical properties of the contact areas to estimate (using a graph neural network) the protein-protein binding energy score. If successfully developed, such methods will provide unique data about the dynamics of tessellation-derived interatomic contact areas. Most importantly, they will provide effective dynamics-aware scores for assessing and ranking structural models of protein complexes.

Keywords: protein dynamics,protein complexes,voronoi tessellation of 3d balls,atom atom contacts,entropy prediction,graph neural networks,molecular structure,protein docking
Low-noise, rapid and ultrabroadband terahertz time-domain ellipsometry enabled by spintronic terahertz emitters (T-SPINDEX)

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: Germany
Call: ERC PROOF OF CONCEPT GRANTS (ERC-2023-POC, 2023)
Start date: 2024-07-01
End date: 2025-12-31
Duration (months): 18.0
Total project cost (EUR): 150000.0
EU funding (EUR): 150000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Electromagnetic radiation in the terahertz (THz) frequency range (0.3-30 THz) is a powerful tool for material spectroscopy and characterization in a contact-free, non-ionizing and non-destructive way. An essential application is the contact-free measurement of the complex-valued reflectivity and, ideally, refractive index of materials. Such knowledge is essential in condensed-matter research (for characterization of, e.g., the conduction-electron concentration and scattering in semiconductors, of optical phonons in insulators and magnons in antiferromagnets) and in applied settings. Ideally, THz reflectivity measurements should be (1) ultrabroadband (covering two decades from 0.3 to 30 THz), (2) user-friendly and offer (3) high precision and low noise. However, requirements (1)-(3) are not fulfilled by current approaches. The goal of T-SPINDEX is to build a prototype THz time-domain reflectivity spectrometer to determine the THz refractive index of materials rapidly. Features (1)-(3) are achieved altogether by using an innovative laser-driven coherent THz source, a spintronic THz emitter.
Prospecting natural lignin biodiversity towards unlocking value-added bioactive motifs and molecules (PROSPLIGN)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness
Programme: Food, Bioeconomy Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment
Theme: Bio-Environment
Destination: Other Bio-environnement destinations
Action type: Research and Innovation actions
Countries involved: Ireland,Finland,Spain,Malta,Switzerland,Portugal
Call: Land-based bioprospecting and production of bioactive compounds and functional materials for multiple bio-based value chains (HORIZON-CL6-2023-CIRCBIO-01, 2023)
Start date: 2024-01-01
End date: 2026-12-31
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 3460910.0
EU funding (EUR): 3460908.0
Participants: 7
Project status: SIGNED

Global terrestrial plant biodiversity remains a largely untapped source of natural bioactive compounds. In fact, valid sources are even “hiding in plain sight”, yet not “within reach” due to lack of effective technical solutions to unlock their potential. In this context, the PROSPLIGN consortium has developed an innovative bioprospecting approach that uses cutting-edge and complementary chemical and enzymatic methods, supported by statistical analysis and coupled with high-throughput detection methods, to enable the discovery of bioactive molecules from lignin, one of the fractions of the most abundant biopolymer on Earth (lignocellulose). Lignin “chemical biodiversity” will enable PROSPLIGN to cover three target markets (pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and fragrances) with a combined market of >€1.4 trillion. The project will use lignin derived from 9 different species and investigate at least 3 different chemical approaches and 10 different enzymes to obtain up to 1000 mixtures of lignin-derived compounds, and then pass a progressively narrower “hit validation funnel” in industrially relevant environments, being screened via up to 17 different bioactivity assays. Sustainable production routes for at least 2 of the most promising compounds per sector, directly or following derivatisation, will be proposed. Compared to traditional approaches, PROSPLIGN's bioprospecting avoids animal cruelty, expensive exploration efforts (no novel animal/plants discovery), disruptive extractions (seeking “hidden gems” in an abundant but underexploited “biomass mine”), and directly targets the liberation of readily testable bio/chemical-functionality present in plant material, superior to other approaches relying on “manipulation-intensive” microbial strain culture or “extrapolation” from DNA/RNA). Ultimately, PROSPLIGN will contribute to a new generation of biobased bioactives, unlocking more value from existing sources whose immense potential has yet to be harnessed.

Keywords: bioprospecting,lignin,natural biodiversity,depolymerisation,lignans
Positive Geometries in the Real World (PositiveWorld)

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: Physics
Countries involved: Germany,United States
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2023 (HORIZON-MSCA-2023-PF-01, 2023)
Start date: 2024-09-01
End date: 2027-08-31
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 265647.84
EU funding (EUR): 265647.84
Participants: 2
Project status: SIGNED

Our understanding of the fundamental laws of Nature is based on the study of scattering amplitudes, traditionally computed using Feynman diagrams. In the past three decades, the shortcomings of this representation have become increasingly clear. Scattering amplitudes enjoy a simplicity which is destroyed by Feynman diagrams, resulting in an overwhelming apparent complexity of computations. This has motivated the search for alternatives to Feynman diagrams, which culminated in the discovery that scattering amplitudes in two toy theories, maximally supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory, and the simplest theory describing colored scalars, can be computed as "Volumes" of positive geometries: regions in kinematic space carved out by inequalities. In the new representation it is the usual properties kept manifest by Feynman diagrams, Locality and Unitarity, which are now obscured while the simplicity of scattering amplitudes is restored. These developments are both conceptually intriguing and practically useful; however, they have so far been limited to applications in toy theories only. The goal of PositiveWorld (Positive geometries in the real World) is to address this issue, using the lessons learned in these examples to describe our world, thus marching towards a reformulation of physics completely alternative to the traditional language of Quantum Field Theory and Feynman diagrams. The guiding principle in this exploration is that progress is measured by the efficiency of computations. Therefore, concrete results within PositiveWorld are presented in the form of novel algorithms to address calculations on various topics of scattering theory, with practical applications for theoretical predictions of experiments taking place at particle colliders.

Keywords: scattering amplitudes,string theory,perturbative qcd,collider physics,algebraic geometry,combinatorics
Safe Life, Anti Fire solutions for light aircraft (SLAF aeronautics)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Innovative Europe
Programme: The European Innovation Council (EIC)
Theme: EIC Accelerator
Destination: Other destinations
Action type: EIC actions
Countries involved: Italy
Call: EIC Accelerator 2024 - Short application (HORIZON-EIC-2024-ACCELERATOR-01, 2024)
Duration (months): 18.0
Total project cost (EUR): 500124.0
EU funding (EUR): 500124.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Development of aeronautical solutions to improve safety in light aircrafts. In a world where the aircraft traffic will grow more and more, where usually it is easier to think about performance and fun than safety, we don't want that light and ultralight aircrafts can be dangerous for pilots and people around them. Moreover, also in new concepts of aircrafts as e-vtol, can be useful to have ready safety solutions to implement. We aim to reduce the type of accidents that are more frequent and have greater damage consequences. Preventive implementation of safety systems and innovative design of standard Light Aircraft Structure is what is missing to ultralight and light aircraft market. Starting with the most well-known, frequent problems with the most serious consequences for pilots and individuals, we will look at the study and implementation of safety systems on board light aircraft. Let's think that a Formula 1 pilot can hurt against a wall at 300km/h and than walk out of the car with his legs. Let's think also that the drag and the gliding capability of aircrafts reduce the speed of falls and that it's difficult to go over that speeds, so why do a pilot should not have a good design to safe itself? Let's think also that the fire during a crash can be avoided in different way, why don't we adopt a solution for it? The ballistic parachute on aircrafts is useful, but it is not always enough. We can address the problems of airframe fire, rollover crushing, risk of falling overboard, impact. This involves solutions on multiple levels, from individual systems to the redesign of structural parts of the aircraft. As pilots, amateur aircraft builders (to date) and engineers, we put our knowledge, experience and passions into action to ensure that there could be as few deaths as possible, bringing innovation to this field.

Keywords: light aircraft safety,post impact fire solutions
Concentrated Solar energy storage at Ultra-high temperatures aNd Solid-state cONversion (SUNSON)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness
Programme: Climate, Energy and Mobility
Theme: Energy
Destination: Sustainable, secure and competitive energy supply
Action type: Research and Innovation actions
Countries involved: Spain,Norway,Italy,Portugal
Call: Next generation of renewable energy technologies (HORIZON-CL5-2021-D3-03, 2021)
Start date: 2022-12-01
End date: 2026-05-31
Duration (months): 42.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2999937.5
EU funding (EUR): 2999937.5
Participants: 6
Project status: SIGNED

AMBITION: SUNSON proposes a breakthrough in the field of Solar to Heat to Power (S2H2P) generation. The SUNSON prototype will be designed, developed, and validated as a modular, ultra-compact and decentralised solution for dispatchable solar power generation with 10 times less volume than current concentration solar power (CSP) technologies that efficiently store solar energy as heat for electricity conversion on demand. It integrates within a unique solution, novel approaches for solar radiation conversion technology (flux splitting optics for beam-down concentrator), ultra-high temperature thermal energy storage (TES) above 1200ºC and solid-state conversion technology based on thermophotovoltaic (TPV) generators. OUTCOMES: on the one hand, a flagship prototype of the proposed technology (SUNSON-Box) integrating optics for beam down CSP technology, high-temperature latent heat storage and the TPV conversion will be demonstrated at TRL4. And on the other hand, SUNSON entails the development of smart digital tools (SUNSON-Tool) for design, management and replicability purposes based on multidisciplinary optimisation. In addition, it will provide a set of features usable for dissemination, exploitation, and communication actions within and beyond the project. VALUE PROPOSITION: the research is well aligned to the growing European and international interest in the integration of renewable energy sources (RES), solar energy conversion and thermal storage, to scale up and demonstrate novel technologies from research level, advancing within the market uptake roadmap. IMPACT: a revolutionary compact CSP and RES conversion technology to efficiently generate power with a modular approach, increasing its cost-effectiveness and spreading the application fields of conventional CSP (namely, industry, electrolysers and H2 production, building,). SUNSON will boost the EU economy by promoting net-zero emission electrification to put CSP back on track to meet the 2050 target.

Keywords: renewable energy sources,concentrated solar power,ultra high temperature storage,thermophotovoltaics,emerging technology,sustainable solutions,power dispatchability