Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Sunlight-mediated photocatalytic upcycling of microplastics (SOLMUP)

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: Finland
Call: MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2022 (HORIZON-MSCA-2022-PF-01, 2022)
Start date: 2023-09-01
End date: 2026-06-30
Duration (months): 34.0
Total project cost (EUR): 215534.4
EU funding (EUR): 215534.4
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

During the last two decades, scientists have been pointing out an important issue related to the excessive use of plastic in our daily life, i.e., the presence of plastic fragments in the range of micrometer in our natural habitats. These species are known as microplastics (MPs) and their effect on the long bioaccumulation foresees unpromising results on the natural balance. Consequently, different scientific fields are looking into viable approaches to remove or destroy MPs. The upcycling of MPs is an example of these and includes the cleavage of the organic bonds forming the polymers in the MPs to obtain new chemicals. Photocatalysis is a frequent methodology applied in the degradation and removal of water contaminant, such as organic molecules, and, consequently, it is likely to lead to a successful MPs upcycling. This strategy involves the high desirable usage of sunlight, which represent the utmost renewable energy, and inorganic photocatalysts. This project proposes the use of a photocatalytic approach for the upcycling of MPs by photoreforming (SOLMUP). It will allow to sustainably obtain high value-added chemicals starting from undesired plastic waste, in line with the principle of circular economy. To avoid the most common drawback of photocatalysts, i.e., charge carriers recombination, Fe-based photocatalysts will be combined to form heterostructures. For the first time in the literature, the heterojunctional photocatalysts will be applied in MPs PR, ensuring a better light response and durability of the catalytic system to increase selectivity and conversion, compared to the few previous reports. Moreover, the study of the reaction intermediates and the transitional states of the catalyst will unveil the mechanism of the photocatalytic reaction. SOLMUP is combining two striking topics in the protection of our environment by sustainable approaches, i.e., the upcycling of waste and the application of new and durable energy sources such as sunlight.

Keywords: upcycling photoreforming microplastics heterojunctional photocatalysts photocatalytic mechanistic studies
Mobile Vapour detection and identification of Synthetic drugs (PENTION)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness
Programme: Civil Security for Society
Theme: Civil Security for Society
Destination: Strengthened Security Research and Innovation
Action type: Innovation actions
Countries involved: Spain,Italy,Canada,United Kingdom,Netherlands
Call: Accelerating uptake through open proposals for advanced SME innovation (HORIZON-CL3-2024-SSRI-01, 2024)
Start date: 2025-09-01
End date: 2027-08-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2048125.0
EU funding (EUR): 1499143.75
Participants: 9
Project status: SIGNED

Drug production and trafficking is a major societal challenge globally, with a high focus on the EU. The drug trade wreaks devastation throughout its value chain: from overwhelmed government administrations, to violence and brutality of the drug cartels, to citizens who succumb to addiction or fatal overdoses. On top of that, we now need to deal with a quickly evolving and very dangerous situation: the proliferation of synthetic drugs, including new psychoactive substances (NPS), which represent a real threat to society, causing serious cross-border threats to health. Synthetic drugs have already changed the traditional drug production and supply model to the extent that traditional seizing methods do not work efficiently and as effectively anymore. This situation forces the authorities to develop and implement new strategies to combat their trade which is based on the importation of chemical precursors from Eastern countries with local production, highly concentrated in different EU areas, such as the case of the Limburg Region (The Netherlands). In addition to such new strategies, novel technologies, with better performances are required for the detection, specifically in terms of sensitivity, selectivity, versatility, portability and wider databases; this is the objective of the PENTION project which aims to develop a new vapour detector that relies on a very innovative concept of a differential mobility analyzer (DMA), which classifies molecular ions based on their electrical mobility, followed by mass spectrometry analysis. This analysis generates a chemical fingerprint of the samples, and after the processing with intelligent detection routines, it becomes possible to accurately classify and detect new drugs and precursors, as well as potential manufacturing sources. The project involves the Netherlands Police and the Limburg region (associated partner) where the problem of new drug synthesis is exponentially increasing year by year.

Keywords: nps,drug trafficking,precursors
Quantum Estimation and Control for Advanced Noisy Metrology (QECANM)

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: Italy
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): 172750.08
EU funding (EUR): 172750.08
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

In recent years, the idea of building quantum technologies has quickly moved from being an intellectual curiosity to a practical reality and quantum metrology and quantum sensors are prominent ones, already in use in scientific and commercial applications. The underlying idea is to exploit genuinely quantum effects to perform extremely accurate measurements, with a precision not achievable by classical means. While many important theoretical and experimental milestones have already been reached, there are still many open theoretical questions left on the path to understanding the ultimate capabilities of quantum metrology, especially in realistic operating conditions. We have identified three main pillars that are currently subject to very active research: i) understanding the ultimate limits of the quantum estimation of multiple parameters simultaneously, either because all of them are of practical interest, or because a full prior characterization of additional system's parameters is not possible; ii) assessing the impact of environmental noise on the quantum probe, in particular beyond the standard assumption of uncorrelated noise; iii) understanding the limits of metrological schemes based on time-continuous measurements, nowadays feasible in many physical systems (e.g. superconducting qubits, optomechanics), which open the possibility to perform measurement-based feedback control on the system. The overarching goal of this action is to advance the state of the art in these three areas and to connect these three pillars, by devising new theoretical tools to assess the ultimate precision limits in novel and physically relevant scenarios. These tools will be rooted in quantum estimation theory and quantum control theory and they will provide fundamental benchmarks for the next generation of quantum sensors.

Keywords: quantum metrology,quantum sensing,multiparameter quantum estimation,time continuous measurements,quantum trajectories
The missing stellar physics component for atmospheric evaporation of exoplanets (EVAPORATOR)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Consolidator 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: Germany
Call: ERC CONSOLIDATOR GRANTS (ERC-2024-COG, 2024)
Start date: 2025-05-01
End date: 2030-04-30
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 2034375.0
EU funding (EUR): 2034375.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

The aim of this ambitious project is to use stellar physics to overcome a roadblock in our understanding of how exoplanets lose their primary hydrogen-helium atmospheres and make space for secondary, life-enabling ones. The best observing window for evaporating primary atmospheres are transit observations in the near-infrared metastable helium lines. However, correctly interpreting the observed absorption is extremely challenging. How much of the planetary helium is in the metastable state is controlled by a very small, but incredibly hard to observe part of the host star's extreme-ultraviolet spectrum. Not knowing this controlling factor makes quantitative estimates of the planet's evaporating atmosphere currently impossible. In this project my team and I will put helium triplet spectroscopy on a solid stellar physics footing for the first time, leveraging my extensive background in stellar X-ray astronomy. We will develop a procedure to reconstruct the crucial part of the stellar extreme-UV spectrum accurately from observed coronal X-ray spectra of stars, vastly outperforming the current highly uncertain estimation methods. We will model the outflowing planetary atmosphere to predict helium absorption as a function of stellar extreme-UV irradiation, and for the first time add accurate physics of X-ray bright stellar flares. We will use an unprecedented approach to test our predictions: We will conduct transit observations of exoplanetary helium during different phases of a host star's activity cycle, i.e. observationally isolating the changing stellar extreme-UV irradiation as a driver of helium absorption for the first time. This high risk - high gain project will turn the phenomenology of the helium window to the exoplanetary atmosphere into true understanding, by paying equal attention to the stellar window in the extreme-UV that controls how much we can see of the planet's escaping atmosphere.

Keywords: stellar coronae,x ray astronomy,exoplanet evaporation,exoplanet atmospheres
DEvelopment of enhanced SOEC components for Improved REliability Endurance (DESIREE)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness
Programme: Climate, Energy and Mobility
Theme: Public-private partnerships
Destination: Clean Hydrogen
Action type: Research and Innovation actions
Partnership: CLEANH2 (JU-JTI)
Countries involved: Spain,Italy,France,Germany,Belgium,Finland
Call: Improved lifetime and cost of high-temperature electrolysers by introducing innovative materials and components in stacks and BoP (HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2025, 2025)
Start date: 2026-01-01
End date: 2029-06-30
Duration (months): 42.0
Total project cost (EUR): 4591717.46
EU funding (EUR): 3998205.86
Participants: 12
Project status: SIGNED

Europe must accelerate its transition to climate neutrality by scaling up renewable hydrogen production, especially for hard-to-abate sectors. Solid Oxide Electrolysers (SOEL) offer a high-efficiency solution but are constrained by challenges like material degradation and high costs. The DESIREE project tackles these issues with a holistic, multi-level approach, advancing SOEL technologies at the cell, stack, and system levels. It aims to demonstrate a scalable, multi-stack 2x20 kW SOEL system, incorporating: i) nanoparticle-infiltrated cells, ii) enhanced stack architectures with durable TEC-gradient sealings, iii) a modular hot box seamlessly integrated with a metal hydride compressor and advanced heat exchangers, iv) advanced dynamic control strategies, and v) SST power electronics for optimized grid integration. These innovations target enhanced long-term durability and power density at cell/stack level, and reductions in Levelized Cost of Hydrogen, energy consumption, CAPEX and OPEX at system level. Circularity will also be embedded from the start, exploring ways to recover valuable materials from cells and end-of-life stacks, laying the groundwork for industrial-scale material recovery. Additionally, accelerated-stress testing protocols, will be validated to ensure reliable system performance under real-world conditions. Finally, the participation of key industrial stakeholders will ensure the development of a detailed exploitation plan for potential SOEL market integration. The project will validate the 40 kW SOEL system under relevant operating conditions, providing robust performance, durability, and techno-economic data. The consortium, comprising 12 partners from 6 countries, includes top research centers, SMEs, and industrial players, ensuring a clear path from TRL 3 to scalable TRL 5. Aligned with the Clean Hydrogen JU, DESIREE will position EU as a leader in next-generation electrolysis, advancing performance, sustainability, and manufacturability.

Keywords: electrolyser,soel technology,renewable h2,multi stack system,nanoparticle infiltrated cells,tec gradient sealings,modular hot box,metal hybrid compressor,heat exchangers,sst power electronics
Cinematic Atmospheres: Towards a New Ecology of the Moving Image (CATNEMI)

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: Germany
Call: ERC STARTING GRANTS (ERC-2022-STG, 2022)
Start date: 2023-05-01
End date: 2028-04-30
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1337744.0
EU funding (EUR): 1337744.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Cinema is not just a representational but also an operational medium. Its global success is indisputably tied to its ability to embed its audience in affectively charged, atmospheric worlds and filmmakers carefully design their narrative worlds through ambient soundscapes, music, colorations, filters, camera movements, production design, mise en scène, rhythmical editing, and countless other features that arrange the emotional and affective experiences of the audience. Marginalized in film studies due to their ontologically indeterminate nature, cinematic atmospheres operate affectively and prior to cognitive, critical, and analytical reflection. This project examines cinematic atmosphere production in all its experiential, aesthetic, and ethical implications as an attractive but also problematic, even harmful, and ideologically loaded enterprise. It raises critical awareness of the basic atmospheric operations of cinema in a time when the medium is relocated into new media environments and its techniques are reused within ecologies that are not cinematic per se such as news broadcasting, videoconferencing, sports refereeing, and even terrorist recruitment. This project i) develops a broad conceptual understanding of cinematic atmospheres as a way of organizing the perceptive, affective, and cognitive epistemic access to the world of the film, and ii) mobilizes this understanding to develop a method for the study of the operations and techniques that constitute cinematic atmosphere production before iii) expanding this method to deal with the question of how these cinematic operations and techniques for atmosphere production are no longer the property of cinema alone but increasingly employed outside of the narrative-aesthetic domain at the service of larger socio-cultural, economic, and political forms of organizing perception, cognition, and affect from art installations to social media.

Keywords: atmosphere,embodiment,film worlds,media anthropology,operative ontology,affect,film phenomenology,enactivism,gernot b hme,ecology of film,relocation of cinema,mood,stimmung,environmental film studies
Woman innovator leading mobility transition and equitable design (Natalia Tomiyama)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Innovative Europe
Programme: The European Innovation Council (EIC)
Theme: EU prize
Destination: EU Prize for Women Innovators
Action type: Recognition Prize
Countries involved: Germany
Call: Women Innovators Category (HORIZON-EIC-EIT-2023-WomenInnovatorsPrize, 2023)
Total project cost (EUR): 0.0
EU funding (EUR): 0.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Mobility transition is one of the most discussed topics today with many emerging solutions in the field of digitization, ticketing and electrification provided by both startups and established companies. Yet research and innovation in the field of electric vehicles remains to be a privilege of the established automotive corporations. EV (electric vehicle) industry is not only challenging from a technical development perspective but is also notorious for its profoundly masculine environment with more than 95% male in leadership positions. In fact, Mary Barra is the first and only female CEO of a car manufacturing company, appointed in 2014. I co-founded NÜWIEL in 2016 to make it possible for anyone regardless of gender, age and driving skills to move heavy and bulky goods in a sustainable, accessible and practical way. NÜWIEL is a company based in Hamburg with a mission to transform current urban mobility patterns and free cities from unnecessary car use, noise and air pollution. We provide the world's first electric trailer with a globally patented sensor technology. The technology enables the eTrailer to mimic every movement of a bicycle with a millisecond robotic precision and to automatically accelerate and brake. That means that a rider can move 300 kg without making any effort when cycling with the eTrailer. The eTrailers have been validated by the market and are integrated in the operations at UPS and Belgian Post delivering mail and parcels, IKEA city stores, residential areas and pharmaceuticals industry. Today, more than 500 eTrailers are running in 4 European counties and thus saving 97% CO2 emissions, reducing noise by 49% and creating more equal job opportunities in city logistics. As one of a very few female CEOs and women of color, I am committed to create more awareness of diversity, equity and inclusion in the electric vehicle industry and at the same time, to accelerate the mobility transition in Europe and worldwide.

Keywords: electric mobility to enable transition towards carbon neutral logistics in densely populate areas
Maximising excellence in research upskilling NCPs and raising the quality of their support to ERC applicants (mERCury)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: ERC other
Action type: Coordination and support actions
Countries involved: Italy,Greece,Türkiye,Poland,Slovakia,Lithuania,Cyprus,Armenia,Malta,Bulgaria,Belgium,France,Hungary,Austria,Israel,United Kingdom,Spain,Switzerland,Iceland,Luxembourg,Latvia,Germany,Romania
Call: Support to the ERC National Contact Points (HORIZON-ERC-2025-NCPS-IBA, 2025)
Start date: 2025-09-01
End date: 2028-08-31
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1799946.25
EU funding (EUR): 1799946.25
Participants: 23
Project status: SIGNED

mERCury will help to 1)facilitate the transnational co-operation and capacity building among ERC National Contact Points (NCPs) to achieve a consistent and harmonized level of support 2)strengthen national and local support to potential ERC applicants, in particular to those from countries with weak participation 3)identify and sharing good NCP practices and raising the general standard of support to ERC applicants 4)enhance the competence of ERC NCPs, including helping less experienced NCPs rapidly acquire the know-how accumulated by NCPs in other countries 5)reach a higher quality and quantity of applications especially from Horizon Europe Widening countries by coaching potential ERC applicants. Our project aims at reaching 3 Specific Objectives (SO): SO1: Improve, professionalise and harmonise services of ERC NCPs. SO2: To Increase capacities of less experienced and Widening countries NCPs, facilitate their work and reduce the gap increasing the participation of applicants from those countries and in any country with weaker participation. SO3: strengthen national and local support to potential ERC applicants, in particular to those from countries with weak participation in the ERC programme. We will reach our SOs thanks to 4 Work Packages that include twinnings, meet&exchange workshops, online working groups, train the trainer events, training sessions and workshops for applicants. These activities will focus on issues specific to the ERC programme and to the ERC NCP work. These activities will be shaped and their topic identified by the same ERC NCPs through a benchmarking questionnaire which will deliver NCPs knowledge, capacity building and upskilling needs. 23 beneficiaries –12 from Widening countries- from all levels of ERC experience will be part of the consortium.

Keywords: european research council,national contact point,cooperation,collaboration,training,network,exchange,capacity building,services,widening,upskilling,knowledge transfer
Breaking the penetration limit of microscopy – Photoswitching Optoacoustics (SWOPT)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Innovative Europe
Programme: The European Innovation Council (EIC)
Theme: EIC Pathfinder
Destination: Open to supporting projects in all areas of science, technology,...
Action type: EIC actions
Countries involved: Germany,France,Netherlands,Switzerland,Greece
Call: EIC Pathfinder Open 2021 (HORIZON-EIC-2021-PATHFINDEROPEN-01, 2021)
Start date: 2022-09-01
End date: 2027-08-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 3536935.75
EU funding (EUR): 3536935.0
Participants: 8
Project status: SIGNED

SWOPT is a novel imaging technology that will break through the penetration limits of optical microscopy to visualize individual cells and their function in vivo through several millimeters to centimeters of depth. SWOPT will exploit (1) optoacoustic imaging (OAI), a modality which combines signal generation similar to optical imaging with the whole-animal imaging capability of ultrasound readout, and uniquely augment it with (2) photoswitching to resolve signals from single labeled cells from deep within live tissue. This will achieve volume sampling abilities surpassing any optical microscopy by at least three orders of magnitude (> 5 x 5 x 5 mm imaging volume). SWOPT will develop the necessary breakthrough instrumentation and concepts: unique multiplexed diode illumination, novel ultra-wideband transducer technology, dedicated inversion algorithms that incorporate photoswitching in the three-dimensional reconstructions, and uniquely tailored classes of photo-switching transgene and synthetic molecular tools. The exceptional capabilities of SWOPT will be demonstrated by proof-of-concept work resolving cellular dynamics and functions in a whole tumor in a model of renal cancer in vivo. SWOPT builds on the world-leading expertise in the disciplines of OA imaging technology (Ntziachristos GER), applied mathematics (Unser CH), and cancer metabolism (Frezza UK) and is driven by excellent young researchers in protein-engineering (Stiel GER) and chemical synthesis (Szymanski NL) and supported by the science-to-technology focus of ambitious high-tech SMEs (Sonaxis FRA, iThera GER, Spear GER). SWOPT’s uniquely comprehensive, yet detailed imaging will enable examination of whole tissues in vivo with the same ease, flexibility and, eventually, abundance of tools paralleling fluorescence microscopy, thus bringing research and understanding of living organisms to the next level. As an affordable imaging technology, SWOPT aspires to become routine in life science and bio-medical research.

Keywords: optoacoustics photoacoustics multiplexed laser diodes transducer protein engineering chemical engineering tumor imaging image processing