Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
3D Printed Vascular Model-on-Chip Platform with Automated Customization (3DPRINT-VASCU-CHIP)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: Marie-Sklodowska-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Individual Fellowships (IF)-Society and Enterprise panel
Action type: Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions
Panel: Life Sciences
Countries involved: Portugal
Call: Individual Fellowships (H2020-MSCA-IF-2017, 2017)
Start date: 2018-05-01
End date: 2020-04-30
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 148635.6
EU funding (EUR): 148635.6
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Cardiovascular diseases cause over 14 million deaths worldwide each year, particularly in the form of heart attacks and strokes. Such diseases have been commonly studied by employing in vitro and in vivo models which are not able to completely recapitulate the human physiology/disease, therefore undermining the search for efficient new treatments. High resolution 3D printing has the potential to revolutionize the study of cardiovascular diseases by means of organ-on-chip approaches. Unlike conventional 2D wafer-based microfabrication techniques, 3D printing can generate truly 3D, organically shaped, highly accurate microfluidic replicas of blood vessels. These replicas can further be lined with cells and perfused with blood, disease-like events can be studied in detail, and therapeutic molecules can be tested. In this project, the potential of such methodology will be explored by developing a software tool that enables automated application-specific customization of the on-chip study platform and by utilizing more complex and biologically relevant materials in the devices' fabrication. The added value of the devices will be further testified by comparison with well-established protocols/methods in the study of angiogenesis, namely in high throughput screening settings. Finally, the commercial viability of such approach will also be assessed, and translation to market will be pursued.

Keywords: 3d printing,biofabrication,organs on chips,microfluidics,cardiovascular disease models,angiogenesis,parametric 3d design,translation to market
3 Dimensional Light sEnsing for Advanced Portable Devices (3D-LEAP)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Industrial Leadership
Programme: Information and Communication Technologies
Action type: SME instrument
Countries involved: Spain
Call: Open Disruptive Innovation Scheme (implemented through the SME instrument) (H2020-SMEINST-2-2015, 2015)
Start date: 2015-07-01
End date: 2018-03-31
Duration (months): 33.0
Total project cost (EUR): 3468925.0
EU funding (EUR): 2428192.38
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

This proposal aims to develop 3 Dimensional Mini-cameras (producing 3D-Images) for mobile phones, tablets and laptop computers; more specifically embedded camera modules providing 2D and 3D-Images, integrating sensing electronics and optics in a single lens Wafer Level Camera (WLC). This market creating innovative device is aiming towards disruptive market-share and global leadership in 3D-imaging camera modules, to accelerate our growth, profitability and Europe´s competitive position in smart cameras for 3D-imaging. We introduce a paradigm changer by applying new sets of rules in one of the highest growth areas addressable in consumer technologies and, we will set entry barriers that are difficult to overcome for current and new market players; we will hit the market while established competitors will still be trying to figure out our algorithms, our IPR and our hardware/software solution. Our most disruptive competitive advantage is based on our algorithms. These exploit a novel hardware structure described in detail in the proposal. In short, we build micro-lenses on top of a semiconductor substrate containing image sensors or pixels with several color filters. 3D has captured the public imagination through Hollywood mega productions (like James Cameron´s Avatar). It has reached modest market penetration in different segments including movie productions, household 3D-TVs and cameras with two lenses. The hurdle to mass market adoption of the technology is the lack of consistent quality 3D content. The paradigm shift that our market creating innovative 3D camera module enables is that it meets the need for much higher quality content production at a lower cost, and will enable the creation of high-quality consumer-owned 3D-content on mobile platforms. Today, 3D content creation is the privilege of a small number of professional movie makers.

Keywords: computational cameras
eMOTIONAL Cities - Mapping the cities through the senses of those who make them (eMOTIONAL Cities)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Societal Challenges
Programme: Health, demographic change and wellbeing
Theme: Preventing disease
Action type: Research and Innovation actions
Countries involved: Estonia,Estonia,Germany,Spain,United States,Denmark,United Kingdom,Portugal,United Kingdom,Portugal
Call: Innovative actions for improving urban health and wellbeing - addressing environment, climate and socioeconomic factors (H2020-SC1-2020-Two-Stage-RTD, 2020)
Start date: 2021-03-01
End date: 2025-02-28
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 4999838.74
EU funding (EUR): 4999838.74
Participants: 13
Project status: SIGNED

As the world is becoming more urbanized and cities of the future need to be people-centred, robust evidence-based knowledge on the underlying biological and psychological processes, by which Urban Planning & Design influence brain circuits and human behaviour, will be critical for policy making on urban health. Emotions are key drivers of our decisions; similarly, our choices are the conduit for our well-being and health. Thus, research focusing on the signals triggered in our neurobiological architecture, responsible for emotions and decisions, while humans interact with the urban environment will shed light on how to improve population health, physical and/or mental. The eMOTIONAL Cities project was designed to fully characterise the intensity and complexity of urban health challenges and inequalities. By exploring the mechanisms and their dynamic, it complements conventional descriptive perspectives focused on exposure-outcome associations. It adopts a systems approach, based on natural experiments and actual problems of case-study cities (Copenhagen, Lisbon, London; and Lansing/Detroit in the USA). Building on theoretical foundations, novel eMOTIONAL city mapping will be generated by combining spatial analysis on social/health data with neuroscience experiments. Our research relies on mixed (qualitative/quantitative) methods and uses multidisciplinary instruments from Urban Planning & Design (GIS for land use, transport, climate and health), Neuroscience (fMRI, EEG) and Data Science & Technology (AI, Big Data and VR/AR reality). The analysis also addresses gender aspects and contemplates a clinical study to show that urban design can impact a vulnerable elderly population at risk of developing dementia. Finally, a novel machine-learning scenario discovery framework will allow testing and impact assessment (for cost-effectiveness, barriers and facilitators) of urban policy strategies to turn EU cities into smart, sustainable and inclusive environments. The eMOTIONAL Cities is a part of the European Cluster on Urban Health.

Keywords: urban planning,urban health,emotion,cognition,neurophysiology
Molecular mechanism and inhibition of extracellular vesicle-mediated PD-L1 release in melanoma cells (UNPACK PD-L1)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: Marie-Sklodowska-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Individual Fellowships (IF)-Standard European Fellowships
Action type: Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions
Panel: Life Sciences
Countries involved: Netherlands
Call: Individual Fellowships (H2020-MSCA-IF-2018, 2018)
Start date: 2020-02-01
End date: 2022-01-31
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 175572.48
EU funding (EUR): 175572.48
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Harnessing the power of the immune system to treat cancer has long been a sought after goal of oncological research. Immune checkpoint inhibitors, such as anti-programmed death receptor 1 (PD-1) blockade therapies, have now taken center stage. However not all patients respond, highlighting gaps in our understanding of the mechanisms of tumour immunosuppression. Upregulation of the PD-1 ligand (PD-L1) on tumour cells initiated this therapeutic direction, yet it is becoming clear that the modality of PD-L1-mediated immune suppression is not limited to the plasma membrane. Like many tumor cells, melanoma cells secrete small extracellular vesicles (EVs) with pro-tumorigenic properties. Melanoma EVs express PD-L1 that suppress T cell function and facilitate tumour growth in pre-clinical mouse models. This systemic mechanism is clinically relevant, as circulating EV-PD-L1 levels can stratify anti-PD-1 clinical responders from non-responders. Thus inhibiting EV-PD-L1 may increase anti-PD-1 efficacy and broaden the responder bracket. One plausible strategy would be to block tumor EV secretion, yet little is known about the molecular mechanisms that drive PD-L1 loading and release. Herein, I intend to uncover the molecular mechanisms of EV PD-L1 release from melanoma cells using state-of-the-art optical and bioluminescent reporters to reveal novel druggable targets. This basic knowledge will be exploited to guide subsequent inhibition, through a drug screen for candidates that inhibit EV-PD-L1 release and restore T cell function. Ideally the outcome of this in vitro study will provide a strong rationale for combining anti-PD-1 agents with inhibitors of EV-PD-L1 secretion, to be tested in pre-clinical mouse models. If successful, melanoma EV blockade may remove the unanticipated bottlenecks that surround the efficacy of anti-PD-1 therapy. In the long term this study is meant to lay groundwork for tumor EV inhibition as a therapeutic strategy for cancer types beyond melanoma.

Keywords: cancer,melanoma,immunotherapy,immune checkpoint inhibitors,pd 1,pd l1,signal transduction,gpcr,receptor biology,kinase inhibitors,extracellular vesicles,exosomes
Structural studies of the full-length human Vitamin C transporters: unravelling Vitamin C transport across the membrane (VitC)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: Marie-Sklodowska-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Individual Fellowships (IF)-Standard European Fellowships
Action type: Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions
Panel: Life Sciences
Countries involved: Norway
Call: Individual Fellowships (H2020-MSCA-IF-2017, 2017)
Start date: 2018-04-01
End date: 2020-12-22
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 196400.4
EU funding (EUR): 196400.4
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

SVCTs are Sodium-dependent Vitamin C Transporters, part of the large solute carrier protein family (SLC), and are the major carriers for Vitamin C uptake and regulation. Abnormal Vitamin C regulation has been associated with several diseases, including cancer, obesity, hypertension, autoimmune and neurodegenerative diseases. Furthermore, Vitamin C attenuates oxidative stress caused by alcohol consumption while continuous Vitamin C deficiency leads to scurvy. Despite their importance, Vitamin C uptake and regulation are poorly understood. In humans, SVCTs include two important classes, SVCT1 and SVCT2, that belong to a family of membrane-embedded, phosphorylation-dependent glycoproteins with an overall 65% sequence identity. Specifically, SVCT1 is expressed on the epithelia of hepatic, intestinal and renal tissues, presenting low affinity and high capacity for Vitamin C, having an important role in regulation of whole body homeostasis. SVCT2, on the other hand, exhibits high affinity and low capacity, and is expressed in most cells and tissues where its function is the delivery of Vitamin C to cells as a cofactor for major enzyme pathways protecting from oxidative stress. To date, the structural basis for the mechanism of action of SVCTs remains largely unexplored. Here, we aim at unraveling the mechanism of Vitamin C transport and regulation by determining the three-dimensional structures of both SVCT1 and SVCT2, thereby providing mechanistic understanding of the different activities of these transporters. We will use a multidisciplinary approach of high-resolution cryo-electron microscopy (Cryo-EM), X-ray crystallography and biophysical methods to understand SVCT function and interactions. This work will contribute to elucidating the mechanism of Vitamin C transport by SVCTs and may ultimately lead to drug discovery.

Keywords: sodium dependent vitamin c transporters svct,vitamin c,cryo em,x ray crystallography,membrane protein,biophysics,structure function
Mapping dEndritic inforMation prOcessing in behaving mice using simultaneous spatio-tempoRal voltage and calcium Imaging and wholE-cell electrophySiology (MEMORIES)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: Marie-Sklodowska-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Individual Fellowships (IF)-Standard European Fellowships
Action type: Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions
Panel: Life Sciences
Countries involved: Switzerland
Call: Individual Fellowships (H2020-MSCA-IF-2018, 2018)
Start date: 2020-01-01
End date: 2022-05-06
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 203149.44
EU funding (EUR): 203149.44
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Dendritic information processing is fundamental to how we perceive and interact with the world around us. Spatio-temporal maps of dendritic voltage reveal how information is processed in the brain, but remain unexplored in awake animals, since no recording technique was previously available to study them. I recently developed a novel technique for spatio-temporal mapping of dendritic processing in unparalleled detail (Roome and Kuhn, 2018). My pioneering experiments provided the first observation of spatio-temporal dendritic voltage signalling in vivo. For the first time, I combined simultaneous dendritic voltage and calcium imaging with somatic recording in cerebellar Purkinje neurons of awake mice to reveal complex dendritic processes, including discrete dendritic spikelets, back-propagating action potentials and localized subthreshold signalling. Using my novel technique to record from neocortical Pyramidal neurons, I will now investigate dendritic processing in behaving mice, to explore how memories are formed during learning. I will focus on how back-propagating action potentials contribute to dendritic processing, through modulation of synaptic plasticity. The Laboratory of Sensory Processing (Prof. Carl Petersen) at EPFL, Switzerland, is specialized for investigating synaptic mechanisms of sensory processing and highly experienced in whole-cell recording and optical imaging during animal behaviour and training; all of which are critical for the success of this project. This fellowship will be instrumental in propelling a technique, that I have been committed to developing, towards state-of-the-art research in neuroscience. It will provide an ideal avenue for introducing a new technique to Europe, through a world leading laboratory, and prove invaluable for sharing skills I acquired abroad, while establishing networks and collaborations as I re-integrate into the European neuroscience community, in pursuit of a professional research carrier based in Europe.

Keywords: dendritic information processing,dendritic integration,synaptic plasticity,voltage imaging,calcium imaging,awake mice,annine 6plus,gevi
HYbrid FLying-rollIng with-snakE-aRm robot for contact inSpection (HYFLIERS)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Industrial Leadership
Programme: Information and Communication Technologies
Action type: Research and Innovation actions
Partnership: Robotics SPARC (cPPP)
Countries involved: Spain,Italy,Spain,Switzerland,Finland,France
Call: Advanced robot capabilities research and take-up (H2020-ICT-2017-1, 2017)
Start date: 2018-01-01
End date: 2022-09-30
Duration (months): 57.0
Total project cost (EUR): 3897020.0
EU funding (EUR): 3897020.0
Participants: 8
Project status: SIGNED

HYFLIERS will develop two prototypes for the first worldwide hybrid aerial/ground robot with a hyper-redundant lightweight robotic articulated arm equipped with an inspection sensor, together with supporting services for efficient and safe inspection in industrial sites. Energy savings will be achieved by minimizing the time of flight and by performing the inspection while attached to the pipe. To ensure accurate positioning, guidance, landing and rolling on constrained surfaces such as pipes, the robot will rely on a control system also integrating environment perception, particularly for landing on the pipes, and aerodynamic control taking into account aerodynamic effects of the pipes. The system will also have multi-media interfaces for teleoperation, automatic collision detection and avoidance; a trajectory planning system that will take into account aerodynamic effects in addition to kinematic and dynamic models; and a mission planning system to optimize the use of the robot in the inspection. The technology results will be validated in the inspection of pipes, which is a very relevant short-term application. HYFLIERS will decrease the cost and risks of current human inspection in production plants, such as oil and gas, where it is estimated that about 50 000 pipe thickness measurement points are needed within a 3 to 5 years interval. HYFLIERS will eliminate the risks of accidental falls and the cost associated to the use of man-lifts, cranes, scaffold or rope access, which is many orders of magnitude larger than the measurement cost by itself. Taking into account that about 60% to 75% of inspection costs in this type of facilities is dedicated to ultrasonic thickness measurements, the project will concentrate on these measurements. The results of the project could be also applied to other industrial scenarios, such as power generation plants.

Keywords: hybrid aerial ground robots,aerial robotics,inspection robotics,robotic pipe corrosion inspection,robotic ndt
A cold-atom photonic-crystal-waveguide interface for efficient quantum operations in single pass (SinglePass)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: Marie-Sklodowska-Curie Actions
Theme: Marie Skłodowska-Curie
Destination: Individual Fellowships (IF)-Reintegration panel
Action type: Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions
Panel: Physics
Countries involved: France
Call: Individual Fellowships (H2020-MSCA-IF-2020, 2020)
Start date: 2021-03-01
End date: 2023-02-28
Duration (months): 24.0
Total project cost (EUR): 184707.84
EU funding (EUR): 184707.84
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Deterministic nonlinear operations between single photons that are at the heart of numerous quantum information protocols require strong interactions between photons and quantum emitters. By combining cold atoms and slow-mode photonic-crystal waveguides, the goal of this project is to develop a novel platform to implement such operations by strongly coupling a photon with atomic ensembles in single pass, that is without the use of an optical cavity. Transverse optical confinement and slow group velocity are the key ingredients in this novel waveguide-QED approach, with applications in integrated quantum technologies, quantum non-linear optics and state engineering. This platform, based on a new and promising combination of photonic-crystal geometry (W1) and material (GaInP) will not only provide superior figures of merit and scalability than in free-space implementations, but also tailored functionalities not achievable in current physical interfaces. This project uniquely combines atomic physics, quantum optics and nanophotonics and will ideally prepare the applicant for a future career as an independent research group leader.

Keywords: cold atoms,single photon,photonic crystal waveguide,waveguide qed
Aspirations Social Norms and Development (ASNODEV)

Framework: Horizon 2020 — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Advanced grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Individuals, Markets and Organisations
Panel description: Economics, finance and management
Countries involved: Italy
Call: ERC Advanced Grant (ERC-2015-AdG, 2015)
Start date: 2016-11-01
End date: 2022-08-31
Duration (months): 70.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1618125.0
EU funding (EUR): 1618125.0
Participants: 1
Project status: CLOSED

Development economists and policymakers often face scenarios in which poor people do not make choices that would help them get out of poverty due to an “aspiration failure”: the poor perceive certain goals as unattainable and do not invest towards those goals, thus perpetuating their own state of poverty. The aim of this proposal is to improve our understanding of the relationship between aspirations and socio-economic outcomes of disadvantaged individuals, in order to answer the question: Can we design policy interventions that shift aspirations in a way that is conducive to development? In addressing the above question a fundamental role is played by social norms and by the ability of individuals to coordinate on “new” aspirations, hence the analysis of social effects is a salient feature of this proposal. The proposed research is organized in two workpackages. The first focuses on the media as a vehicle for changing aspirations, examining both commercial TV programs and “educational entertainment”. The second workpackage examines “tailored” interventions designed to address specific determinants of aspiration failures (e.g., psychological support to reduce perceived barriers; inter-racial interaction to change stereotypes; institutional reform to strengthen women’s rights and reduce the gender aspiration gap). The methodology will involve rigorous evaluation of several interventions directly designed to or indirectly affecting aspirations and social norms. Original data collected through survey work, large administrative datasets and media content analysis will be used. The results of this project will advance our knowledge on the sources of aspiration failures by poor people and on the interplay between aspirations and social norms, eventually opening the avenue for a new array of anti-poverty policies.

Keywords: aspirations,social norms,media economics,poverty,gender bias