Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Expand Flow – Accessing new chemical space via a combined flash- and photochemical flow chemistry approach for the functionalisation and ring expansion of heterocycles (Expand Flow)

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: Italy
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2022 (HORIZON-MSCA-2022-PF-01, 2022)
Start date: 2023-10-16
End date: 2025-10-15
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 172750.08
EU funding (EUR): 172750.08
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

With ever-increasing costs for the development of new drugs, the call for the development of more cost-effective and efficient methodologies to streamline the access to new drug candidates is imperative. To access new chemical space, the ring-distortion strategy – late-stage modification of rings to a variety of different functionalized cyclic and acyclic motifs – has proven a particularly successful approach. Recently, numerous ring-expansion and functionalisation protocols to cyclopentanones, tetralones, γ-functionalized butanones from cyclobutanols have been developed using classical batch processes. Despite the advances, the translation to pharmaceutically relevant applications is still outstanding; mainly due to three factors: 1)The application of heterocycles in these protocols has been very limited or even impossible 2)The two-carbon ring expansion has only been successful on aryl-substituted analogues, yet not on alkene-substituted analogues & 3)Scale-up to practical quantities is often difficult due to the requirement for conditions difficult to realise using batch processing. Expand Flow presents a multidisciplinary project that lies in the intersection of flash chemistry and synthetic photo-catalysis with microfluidic engineering and computational chemistry for the development of a selective, sustainable and applicable methodology for the ring deconstruction and functionalisation of heterocycles. Ultimately, its applicability to the pharmaceutical industry will be proven by the total synthesis of THC and its hitherto unexplored heterocyclic analogues. Overall, this project will add a valuable tool to the synthetic chemist’s repertoire for the rapid, environmentally-friendly and cost-effective development of new drug candidates by the versatile functionalisation of various heterocycles. This innovative approach will have a high scientific, technological and societal impact, reinforcing the European competitiveness in the development of life-saving drugs.

Keywords: flash chemistry,photochemical flow chemistry,ring expansion,tetrahydrocannabinol
3D scene understanding in two glances (SEGMENT)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Consolidator grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: The Human Mind and Its Compl exity
Panel description: Cognitive science, psychology, linguistics
Countries involved: Germany
Call: ERC CONSOLIDATOR GRANTS (ERC-2022-COG, 2022)
Start date: 2023-11-01
End date: 2028-10-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2083091.25
EU funding (EUR): 2083091.25
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

The human mind understands visual scenes. We can usually tell what objects are present in a scene, we can imagine what the hidden parts of objects look like, and we can imagine what it would look like if we or an object moved. The first step of visual scene understanding is segmentation, in which our brain tries to infer which parts of the scene belong to which objects. Adults can do this in photographs – but photographs are not how we learned to see as infants. We learned to see by moving around in a 3D world. The way that scenes project into our eyes, how light is affected by the optics of our eyes, how our photoreceptors sample the light, and how we move our eyes all provide rich information about our environment. However, we do not know how adults combine all this information to perceive segmented scenes, and we do not know how infants learn this combination. Two reasons for this are that standard visual display devices cannot precisely mimic these factors, and that it is unethical to manipulate these factors in human infants. The goals of this project are to understand how adults use the rich information present in active 3D vision to perform segmentation, and to understand how this is learned. We will develop a new display device and experimental methods to study how adults segment scenes when realistic visual information is available, and develop ground-breaking new technologies using advanced computer graphics and machine learning to simulate the inputs to the visual system from early development to adulthood. We will then conduct in silico experiments in artificial neural networks to understand segmentation learning, by systematically restricting or manipulating different factors. We will compare the learned behaviours of different artificial networks to adults performing segmentation during active exploration of 3D scenes, and use similarities and differences to better understand a fundamental puzzle of perception: how the mind makes sense of scenes.

Keywords: vision,psychophysics,multifocal display,differentiable rendering,deep neural networks
Upscaling reactive transport in unsaturated media: from the pore to the vadose zone (Uplift)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting 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: Spain
Call: ERC STARTING GRANTS (ERC-2023-STG, 2023)
Start date: 2024-03-01
End date: 2029-02-28
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1476150.0
EU funding (EUR): 1476150.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

The vadose zone is the unsaturated region connecting the land surface to groundwater, acting as a filter for nutrients and contaminants and controlling their access to aquifers. Reactive transport in unsaturated porous media is of central importance to our understanding of nutrient cycles and applications such as soil and groundwater remediation. Geological media are heterogeneous across scales, and desaturation leads to complex patterns of air and water and preferential flow channels, enhancing structural heterogeneity. Resolving all scales is unfeasible, severely limiting the capacity of current models to predict field-scale reactivity and the spatial distribution of dissolved reactant plumes in the vadose zone. Uplift proposes a shift in perspective from empirical parameterization to the development of upscaled models rooted in a firm understanding of pore-scale dynamics. The underlying hypothesis is that a framework capable of quantifying subscale mixing limitations, combined with a coarse field-scale description of flow, can significantly improve current models. This requires a better understanding of pore-scale dynamics under unsaturated conditions, along with a theoretical framework capable of capturing their impact at larger scales. Uplift aims to address these challenges by connecting stochastic models of transport to statistical pore-scale features, and combining them with a novel population dynamics framework for reactive transport connecting effective reaction rates to delays due to transport limitations. To support the theoretical developments and complement available data, resolved simulation tools developed in the project will be employed to assess the role of degree of saturation, pore-scale structure, and transient forcings on phase distribution statistics and solute mixing. The proposed framework and its numerical implementation are expected to result in new reactive transport models for the vadose zone with significantly improved predictive power.

Keywords: reactive transport mixing stochastic upscaling continuous time random walk
AI-based leukemia detection in routine diagnostic blood smear data (LeukoScreen)

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 GRANTS2 (ERC-2022-POC2, 2022)
Start date: 2023-12-01
End date: 2025-05-31
Duration (months): 18.0
Total project cost (EUR): 156428.57
EU funding (EUR): 150000.0
Participants: 2
Project status: CLOSED

Acute promyelocytic leukemia is an extremely aggressive blood cancer where immediate diagnosis can determine life or death. The diagnostic state of the art is manual inspection of a patient’s blood smear under the microscope by trained cytologists. It is prone to human error and time consuming - a risk factor in notoriously understaffed laboratories. Supporting clinical decisions with AI will drastically increase diagnostic speed and accuracy, benefit patient survival, and free up valuable expert time. This is particularly important for cytological and histological analysis, whose market size is expected to rise by a compounded annual growth rate of 14.7% in coming years. Yet, so far, the proof of concept that AI can be effectively employed for leukemia detection in routine diagnostics is missing. I will leverage the methodological advancements in deep learning and explainable AI, the skills of my ERC CoG funded research group, and the expertise and data of the Munich Leukemia Laboratory (MLL), the largest leukemia laboratory in Europe and my long standing industry partner. Together, we will develop and implement LeukoScreen, an AI-based software to automatically identify and flag up acute leukemia cases from MLL’s routine laboratory input. This will decrease the diagnosis to treatment time of critical leukemia cases at reduced costs and staffing. Specifically, we will (i) deploy a real-world dataset from the routine input of the MLL, (ii) train and evaluate our algorithm for transparent decision making on routine diagnostic blood smears, (iii) quantify the gain in sensitivity, specificity, and speed by comparing LeukoScreen with the currently used manual workflow at MLL, and (iv) jointly develop a commercialization strategy for the exploitation of results. This AI approach to support disease detection will save patients’ lives, change the paradigm of cytologic workflows, and create capacities in overburdened diagnostics.
Massive-binary EvoluTion Across the metallicity Ladder (METAL)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Universe Sciences
Panel description: Astro -physics/ -chemistry/ -biology; solar system; planetary systems; stellar, galactic and extragalactic astronomy; cosmology; space sciences; astronomical instrumentation and data
Countries involved: Israel
Call: ERC STARTING GRANTS (ERC-2024-STG, 2024)
Start date: 2025-01-01
End date: 2029-12-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1500000.0
EU funding (EUR): 1500000.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Do massive stars undergo supernova explosions when collapsing into black holes? What mechanisms drove the Cosmos into an epoch of reionization? How was dust produced in the Early Universe? Scarcely any field of astronomy remains unaffected by massive stars: stars born with more than eight solar masses. Yet, studies in the Local Universe reveal substantial gaps in our understanding of massive stars related to mass loss, internal mixing, core-collapse, and stellar interactions. Uncertainties worsen at the low-metallicity conditions of the Early Universe. The primary reason for this: a severe lack of empirical constraints on massive binaries across the metallicity axis, driven by the rarity of massive stars and the shortage of adequate monitoring campaigns to study them. METAL leverages hundreds of hours worth of novel spectroscopic and interferometric data collected as PI using observatories such as the Very Large Telescope (VLT) and the Hubble Space Telescope, including a VLT Large Programme (116hr; 2023 - 2025). These campaigns monitor thousands of massive stars in our Galaxy and the Magellanic Clouds. Targeting unevolved OB-type stars, evolved Wolf-Rayet and Oe/Be stars, and elusive black holes, METAL will elucidate the initial conditions, evolution, and ultimate fates of massive stars at three metallicity anchors. Groundbreaking outcomes include (1) unprecedented statistics on the multiplicity, initial mass function, and structure of massive stars at low metallicity, (2) a tenfold increase in the sample of dormant black-hole binaries and the first such sample at low metallicity, and (3) a revised mass-loss prescription and a comprehensive binary characterisation of evolved massive stars at two metallicity anchors. The deliverables will be the defining calibrators for next-generation evolution models of massive stars, ushering in advancements in models of not only stellar evolution, but galaxy evolution, unresolved stellar populations, and core-collapse supernova.

Keywords: massive stars,spectroscopy,binaries,low metallicity,magellanic clouds,core collapse,black holes
SafE and reliabLE COmbustion Technologies powered by Hydrogen (SELECT-H)

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: France
Call: ERC ADVANCED GRANTS (ERC-2022-ADG, 2022)
Start date: 2023-10-01
End date: 2028-09-30
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2499489.84
EU funding (EUR): 2499489.84
Participants: 5
Project status: SIGNED

Hydrogen is uniquely placed to achieve both energy security and net-zero greenhouse emission goals provided it can be produced by low-carbon resources and systems powered by hydrogen can be operated safely and reliably. Hydrogen can be burned to produce heat or power. It can also be used in fuel cells to produce electricity. Due to its high reactivity with oxygen, it often results in violent dynamics that raises challenges to guarantee the integrity and reliability of the systems powered by hydrogen but also their safety. The objective of SELECT-H is threefold: (1) develop fundamental knowledge on combustion science associated with the use of hydrogen in real systems, (2) develop and validate simulation tools to predict these flows and (3) develop solutions to favor the shift from technologies powered by hydrocarbon fuels to safe and reliable systems only powered by hydrogen. These objectives will be achieved in SELECT-H by combining detailed experiments, low order physics-based models and high-fidelity numerical simulations in two different sets of configurations with large societal impact. The first set considers technologies in which hydrogen must burn efficiently, including domestic boilers, cooking stoves and gas turbines for propulsion and power generation. They cover a wide range of operating conditions, fuel and oxidizer injection schemes, including laminar atmospheric cases and highly-turbulent flows at high pressure and elevated temperature where combustion dynamics can threaten the system integrity and reliability. The second set considers cases where hydrogen combustion must be avoided. Typically, hydrogen leaks from fuel cells or from high pressure storages will be considered to understand how hydrogen leaks may ignite and, if they do, how they will interact with walls. The fundamental knowledge gained in SELECT-H will allow the design of safe and reliable hydrogen-powered units.

Keywords: hydrogen,combustion
A History of Far-Right Europeanism in the Post-War Period (FREITPWP)

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: Social Sciences and Humanities
Countries involved: Norway
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2024 (HORIZON-MSCA-2024-PF-01, 2024)
Start date: 2026-08-01
End date: 2028-07-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 251578.56
EU funding (EUR): 251578.56
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

FREITPWP examines the genesis, evolution, and demise of several neo-fascist networks and organizations that operated across European borders during the post-war period (late 1940s to 1970s). These include the European Social Movement (ESB), the European New Order (NEO), and the National Party of Europe (NPE). The study puts forth a novel theoretical framework for analyzing these networks: far-right Europeanism, which is defined as a commitment to the political, economic, and cultural consolidation of the European continent among far-right agents, organizations, and parties, who based their inter-European collaboration on exclusionary, illiberal, anti-democratic, and racist ideas of Europe. The explicit emphasis on the notion of Europe as an ideological rationale for far-right internationalism represents a significant departure from the existing scholarship on right-wing politics in Europe. The study's long-term perspective, which links the inter-war and post-war periods to the present day, provides groundbreaking insights into the continuity and discontinuity of Europe's role in the international cooperation of the far right throughout the "long" 20th century. The project draws upon archival research conducted in a range of European countries, incorporates interdisciplinary methodological innovations, and collaborates with multiple experts in the field.

Keywords: far right neo fascism fascism europeanism european integration transnational history post war period
Probing Matter at the Extreme Conditions with Neutron Stars (ProMatEx-NS)

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: Spain
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2022 (HORIZON-MSCA-2022-PF-01, 2022)
Start date: 2023-09-01
End date: 2025-08-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 165312.96
EU funding (EUR): 165312.96
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

In this proposal, we will probe the properties of nuclear matter at extreme conditions of pressure and gravity using neutron stars as astrophysical laboratories. We will study different aspects of neutron stars: from the outermost part to their dense core. We will test the latest theories in nuclear physics and develop a robust understanding of its interior using the latest observational data and the results from nuclear experiments relevant to the matter of the neutron star core. We will create a relativistic nuclear metamodel to model the neutron star matter that can incorporate present and future experimental uncertainties. With this understanding, we will use neutron stars as dark matter detectors and test theories of particle physics beyond the standard model. We will predict the detectability of dark matter in future space-based missions and gravitational wave detectors.

Keywords: neutron stars,dense matter,quark matter,hybrid stars,pulsars,gravitational waves,binary merger,dark matter,
Deciphering the neonatal shift in neurovascular coupling: a multimodal approach (2BOLD)

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: Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions
Panel: Life Sciences
Countries involved: Portugal
Call: Fostering balanced brain circulation – ERA Fellowships (HORIZON-WIDERA-2022-TALENTS-02, 2022)
Start date: 2023-01-02
End date: 2025-01-01
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 172618.56
EU funding (EUR): 172618.56
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) functional brain imaging is a valuable non-invasive tool widely used in studies of brain development in health and disease, which relies on blood flow and oxygenation state to provide insights into brain function. Intriguingly, functional imaging studies in the newborn developing brain often report unexplained variation and early inverted hemodynamic responses. There is a gap in knowledge to explain the discrepancy in the newborn hemodynamic signals that needs to be addressed for a better understanding of functional imaging data. The main goal of this project is to identify the origins of this shift. This will be achieved through the combination of a multidisciplinary team with cutting-edge methodologies to study the neonatal brain development in the living mouse. 2BOLD will implement specific aims that leverage innovative non-invasive imaging with a mechanistic insight approach. In Aim 1, we will longitudinally track, using suited pre-clinical imaging, the co-development of hemodynamic, vascular, and metabolic activity. Here, we aim to resolve the spatiotemporal developmental switch from negative to positive responses. In Aim 2, we will use in vivo 2-photon microscopy, novel transgenic animals and optogenetic manipulation to elucidate if the emergence of perivascular astrocytic endfeet is linked with cerebrovascular tone development and neurovascular coupling. Lastly, in Aim 3, live imaging will be complemented by comprehensive proteomic and metabolomic profiling of cerebrovascular maturation associated with the hemodynamic changes. This groundbreaking project will capture the dynamics of cerebrovascular events and hemodynamic signatures with unprecedented detail in the intact mammalian neonatal brain. This advance may pave the way for mechanistic studies on how injury or other adverse processes might derail normal development, with an impact on the diagnosis and treatment of neonatal brain pathologies, such as cerebral palsy.

Keywords: neuroimaging,two photon microscopy,neurovascular unit,astrocytes vascular interactions,molecular screening,sex related differences
Unspecific Peroxygenases for the Oxidation of Arenes (UPOxArene)

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: Netherlands,Spain
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2023 (HORIZON-MSCA-2023-PF-01, 2023)
Start date: 2024-11-01
End date: 2026-10-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 187624.32
EU funding (EUR): 187624.32
Participants: 2
Project status: SIGNED

UPOXARENE is an interdisciplinary project combining organic synthesis, biocatalysis, and protein engineering, to realise the elusive epoxidation of arenes in a single step using engineered unspecific peroxygenases (UPOs). The compatibility of UPOs with organic media will be exploited to expand their chemistry beyond the aromatic hydroxylation accessible with cytochrome P450s. The utility of the method will be demonstrated through the preparation of industrially relevant products in continuous chemo-enzymatic cascades, in alignment with the principles set out in the MSCA Green Charter. UPOXARENE will promote biotechnology through the citizen-science initiative Peroxynauts, encouraging students from all backgrounds to pursue careers in the life sciences.

Keywords: biocatalysis,flow chemistry