Data-Gouv-ML/pcri-informations-sur-les-projets-laureats huggingface dataset:
Integrated BIOrefinery to VALorize CO2 and biomass for the co-production of advanced biofuels and bioproducts (BIOVAL)

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,Portugal,Belgium,Greece,France,Italy
Call: Development of smart concepts of integrated energy driven bio-refineries for co-production of advanced biofuels, bio-chemicals and biomaterials (HORIZON-CL5-2024-D3-02, 2024)
Start date: 2025-10-01
End date: 2028-09-30
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 3499076.25
EU funding (EUR): 3499076.0
Participants: 10
Project status: SIGNED

The EU aims to reduce the overall energy demand and supply energy in a climate-neutral way. For that aim, energy must be sustainable, cost-effective and safe, by boosting innovative technologies. In this sense, the EU describes the Key Strategic Orientation C: “Making Europe the first digitally enabled circular, climate-neutral and sustainable economy through the transformation of its mobility, energy, construction and production systems”. Therefore, it is mandatory to develop new energy technologies that are circular, environmentally friendly, affordable, safe and socially positive. By 2030, the EU aims to have a 40-45 % renewable energy share with 2.2 % advanced biofuels by 2030 and to be climate neutral in 2050. BIOVAL is a 36-month action that will create, develop and scale up an integrated energy-driven circular biorefinery with near zero-waste and zero-carbon emissions. It is based on a multi-feedstock concept, allowing the valorization of biogenic CO2 emissions and biomass wastes. The biorefinery also targets a multiproduct operation by the feasible and sustainable production of biofuels (advanced algal Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil-HVO, bio-H2, biogas/CH4, and IPA) and high-added value bioproducts like pigments (e.g., astaxanthin), using microalgae and bacterial gas fermentation as core technologies in a cascade/parallel approach. The biorefinery will be designed by a circular concept to maximize energy and mass integration, targeting zero-waste/carbon emissions production and minimum energy needs. For that aim, computational tools will be significant methodologies to support the design, modelling, optimization and scale-up of the bioprocesses. The process will be assessed in terms of environmental, techno-economic and social impact, considering the regional/local levels too. The biofuels produced will be benchmarked with existing biofuels to target a competitive alternative. The core technologies will be scaled up and validated in relevant environments (TRL5).

Keywords: microalgae algal oil hvo bioproduct astaxanthin microalgae cultivation gas fermentation isopropanol bacteria biorefinery circular economy bioeconomy biogas h2 ccu
Experimental signatures of quantum electrodynamics in the strong field regime (EXAFIELD)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Fundamental Constituents of Matter
Panel description: Particle, nuclear, plasma, atomic, molecular, gas, and optical physics
Countries involved: France
Call: ERC STARTING GRANTS (ERC-2022-STG, 2022)
Start date: 2023-10-01
End date: 2028-09-30
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1685085.0
EU funding (EUR): 1685085.0
Participants: 2
Project status: SIGNED

Quantum Electrodynamics (QED) is the theory that unifies electromagnetism and quantum mechanics to describe how light and matter interact. Considered as one of the most accurately tested theories, it led Richard Feynman to call it “the jewel of physics”. Yet, in the strong-field (SF) regime, when the light fields are ultra-intense, this theory is only treated perturbatively and the non-perturbative regime of SF-QED remains a terra incognita as even no theory exists to predict the behaviour of nature. The advent of multi-PW laser infrastructures now makes the SF-QED regime within experimental reach when considering the collision of relativistic electrons with such light pulses focused above 10^22W/cm2. Yet, all planned experiments to probe SF-QED with current technologies only propose to investigate its perturbative regime, expected to be well described by theory. In the EXAFIELD project, I propose a new concept of experiments to exceed the perturbative limit of SF-QED in the lab. This will be achieved by reflecting an ultra-intense laser pulse off a plasma mirror at relativistic speed. The strong Doppler effect occurring upon reflection up-converts the near-infrared laser pulse down to the extreme ultraviolet range which enables both temporal compression to the attosecond timescale and spatial compression down to sub-micron size. This results in a considerable intensity boost at focus of more than three orders of magnitude up to a few-10^25W/cm2. The collision of such a “Doppler-boosted beam” with ultrashort electron bunches generated from laser-plasma accelerators will allow us to access regimes where the SF-QED can no longer be treated perturbatively, producing very strong signatures in the lab. Characterizing how the observations deviate from the perturbative theory will enable us to determine the limits of validity of the perturbative models and will open to a new area of research toward the understanding of the non-perturbative regime of SF-QED.

Keywords: laser plasma interaction,attosecond pulses,relativistic plasma mirrors,laser wakefield acceleration,strong field quantum electrodynamics,laser electron collision,compton scattering
Georadar-aided High-resolution Exploration to Advance deep geoThermal energy usage (GeoHEAT)

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: Germany,Switzerland,Sweden,Netherlands,Italy,Luxembourg
Call: Advanced exploration technologies for geothermal resources in a wide range of geological settings (HORIZON-CL5-2023-D3-02, 2023)
Start date: 2024-06-01
End date: 2028-05-31
Duration (months): 48.0
Total project cost (EUR): 4746642.5
EU funding (EUR): 4167892.5
Participants: 11
Project status: SIGNED

GeoHEAT will transform geothermal exploration through two key strategic shifts: (i) minimising pre-drilling exploration costs while quantifying and communicating the risks; and (ii) maximising learning rates of exploration drilling while reducing the costs of characterisation. As a first step, the high costs and shortsighted prospection are tackled with passive surface-based imaging methods and uncertainty encompassing modelling alternatives. In parallel to reducing measurement bias, our approach engages a larger population and stakeholder group in search for optimal locations for geothermal exploitation. In the following step, GeoHEAT illuminates the subsurface to an unprecedented extent through a novel georadar probe. The georadar imaging is complemented with drilling-induced microseismicity monitoring and digital rock physics models to create a high-resolution understanding of the reservoir. Our novel, multi-scale approach unlocks the potential of informed deviated drilling, optimal wellbore placement and accurate performance and risk analysis. Throughout the GeoHEAT journey we propose effective and inclusive tools for public engagement and two-way communication while we introduce advanced decision-making tools for policymakers based on probabilistic modelling and uncertainty quantification. To maximize its impact and expediate its success, GeoHEAT consists of a complementary consortium with European leaders in the scientific, industrial, and public domain. The interdisciplinarity of our team allows us to look at geothermal energy exploration from different angles (e.g., geophysics, engineering, seismology, social sciences and humanities) and ensure the technical, scientific, economic and social sustainability of our proposed exploration workflow. By building on the results and expertise of previous and ongoing related projects, GeoHEAT contributes to the European-wide energy transition process to provide reliable, secure and competitive geothermal energy supply

Keywords: geothermal,exploration,prospection,georadar
The German Network. Primo Levi's Correspondence with German Readers and Intellectuals (LeviNeT)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: ERC actions
Countries involved: Italy
Call: ERC STARTING GRANTS (ERC-2021-STG, 2021)
Start date: 2022-09-01
End date: 2027-08-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1190125.0
EU funding (EUR): 1190125.0
Participants: 2
Project status: SIGNED

Primo Levi (1919-1987), one of the most important witnesses of the Holocaust, has been studied increasingly over the last three decades. Levi is currently recognized as one of the few Italian thinkers of essential importance for the understanding of the 20th century as a whole. The LeviNeT project aims to provide the very first edition of a significant portion of Levi?s multilingual correspondence. The edition will be open source and hosted on an online platform. It will concentrate on Levi?s German correspondence: the epistolary exchanges that took place between Levi and his German-speaking readers, interlocutors, friends, survivors and former oppressors from 1959 to 1987. This correspondence constitutes a stunning epistolary network between him and many German-language correspondents, including the translator, Heinz Riedt, the philosopher, Jean Am?ry, the historian, Hermann Langbein, and the politician, Hety Schmitt-Maass. It consists of a rich and vibrant discussion on themes such as guilt, the possibility of overcoming the past, and the consequences of that past on the present. What is at the heart of this network is the rebuilding of a post-war European identity. In short, this project uncovers a new and decisive crossroad in European cultural history. Thanks to the authorization of Primo Levi?s heirs, it will be possible to access Levi?s private archive for the first time, and so to have a complete view of his German network. The planned open-source edition will include: a philological transcription and a semantic analysis of each letter, a graphic visualization of the German network, in-depth biographical information for each correspondent, a timeline and a map, and a series of thematic itineraries. This edition will provide a brand-new narrative in studies of Primo Levi and unique core material for literary scholars and historians. Moreover, it will be an innovative didactic tool for the international community of teachers, students and readers.

Keywords: holocaust studies primo levi european history european identity politics of memory public memory epistolary studies
Deciphering stringent response proteins and toxin-antitoxin systems in the arms race between bacteria and phages (PhaBacArms)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Immunity, Infection and I mmunotherapy
Panel description: The immune system , related disorders  and their mechanisms , biology of infectious agents and infection, biological basis of prevention and treatment of infectious diseases , innovative imm unological tools and approaches , including  therapies
Countries involved: Estonia
Call: ERC STARTING GRANTS (ERC-2023-STG, 2023)
Start date: 2024-01-01
End date: 2028-12-31
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1499250.0
EU funding (EUR): 1499250.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

Bacteriophages, viruses of bacteria, are the most abundant life form on Earth. The prospect of using them in the fight against pathogenic bacteria has long been recognised, but their very high specificity and unpredictable reproduction limits their use in medicine. The mechanisms phages use to fight bacteria are attractive candidates for the development of novel antimicrobial applications, but are still very poorly understood. Indirect evidence exists of toxin antitoxin systems (TAS) and stringent response involvement in phage defence. The constant co-evolution of phages and bacteria suggests that phages have a way of overcoming all of the wide variety of bacterial defence systems, yet, no direct phage mechanisms targeting bacterial stringent response have been identified. We hypothesise that as the bacterial toxin-antitoxin systems and stringent response play a part in the arms race between bacteria and phages we can provide direct molecular evidence and identify phage proteins involved in these interactions by (1) creating and characterising, morphologically and molecularly, a novel library of phages infecting Pseudomonas putida PaW85; (2) uncovering the stringent response- and TAS-mediated phenotypic effects and their molecular mechanisms on P. putida phage tolerance; (3) discovering and characterising, functionally and structurally, the anti-TAS and anti-stringent response phage effectors; (4) determining the toxicity and specificity of the identified phage-derived toxins by testing them on different bacterial species. This study will bridge several gaps in the phage-bacteria interaction research, advance the research of phage-tolerant bioremediation strains and give crucial basic knowledge that can lead to the development of novel, efficient phage therapy solutions that target bacterial stress-mechanisms.

Keywords: bacteriophages,rsh ezymes,toxin antitoxin systems,ppgpp,stringent response,pseudomonas
KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS TRANSFER FOR THE APPLICATIONS OF NANOTECHNOLOGY IN BIOSENSORS FOR FOODBORNE PATHOGENS (Know4Nano)

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
Panel: Information Science and Engineering
Countries involved: Serbia,Spain,Italy,Czechia
Call: Twinning Bottom-Up (HORIZON-WIDERA-2023-ACCESS-02, 2023)
Start date: 2024-10-01
End date: 2027-09-30
Duration (months): 36.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1499891.41
EU funding (EUR): 1499891.41
Participants: 4
Project status: SIGNED

The Know4Nano project aims to unlock synergetic research and innovation potential between EU-partner institutions and Biosense Institute (BIOS) to enhance the research and management capacity of BIOS staff in the field of bionanotechnology (BnT), project management and technology transfer to perform research activities toward the development of innovative and user-friendly personalized point-of-care diagnostic tests for food safety applications along the farm-to-fork food chain and unlock existing research potential and applicability of research results. Good practice, innovation, and scientific excellence from the leading European research institutions in the field of BnT: Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, Barcelona, Spain, with expertise in nanotechnology and nanoscience-based biosensors, and microfluidics, National Research Council, Rome, Italy, an expert in molecular biology, optical biosensors, biosensors testing and validation, and food safety, University of Chemistry and Technology, Prague, Czech Republic, an expert in materials science, materials synthesis, functionalization, and characterization of materials, will be transferred to BIOS by establishing a knowledge transfer platform based on carefully designed mobilities, trainings and novel approaches in mutual collaboration to increase research excellence and innovation potential for all partners in bio-nanotechnology, with a principal focus on BIOS. Know4Nano will enable researchers from BIOS to acquire essential expertise, competencies, and skills in the field of nanomaterials, biosensors, microfluidics, and food safety, and enhance BIOS research management capacities and administrative skills for further commercialization, exploitation, and dissemination of results with the goal to increase its attractiveness in the region and EU as a potential collaboration in future project capable to generate new breakthrough results and marker-ready products.

Keywords: knowledge transfer,nanomaterials,biosensors,field effect transistors,microfluidics,pathogen detection,project management,technology transfer
Tailoring the plasticity of intermetallics - from understanding and predicting deformation mechanisms to new materials (TailorPlast)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Consolidator grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Materials Engineering
Panel description: Advanced materials development: performance enhancement, modelling, large -scale preparation, modification, tailoring, optimisation, novel  and combined use of materials, etc.
Countries involved: Germany
Call: ERC CONSOLIDATOR GRANTS (ERC-2024-COG, 2024)
Start date: 2025-12-01
End date: 2030-11-30
Duration (months): 60.0
Total project cost (EUR): 1999794.0
EU funding (EUR): 1999794.0
Participants: 1
Project status: SIGNED

TAILORPLAST focuses on understanding and predicting plastic deformation mechanisms in intermetallic phases for advanced structural and functional materials. The traditional approach of manipulating microstructures in metal-based alloys has been immensely successful, but new materials and predictive materials design strategies are needed to enable new functionalities and sustainability in transportation, production, energy conversion and storage. TAILORPLAST seeks to address this challenge by adopting a generalised approach and leveraging recent experimental and computational insights into the atomic mechanisms of dislocation motion in intermetallics in combination with graph neural networks and their reach towards extensive databases. Recently, we could show that small changes in intermetallic composition can lead to dramatic property changes. We uncovered the details of the essential dislocation mechanisms and energy barriers in the intermetallic crystals and have demonstrated how this knowledge enables tailoring of properties. Within a single crystal structure, the critical stresses for deformation may be varied across a large range by inducing sublattice order, even in a binary intermetallic. The project's objectives are to expand the understanding of fundamental plasticity mechanisms beyond metals, transfer these mechanisms to a large class of topologically close-packed intermetallic phases, and ultimately identify promising intermetallics for tailored plasticity and predict the plastic properties of complex intermetallic precipitate phases in high-performance alloys. The success of TAILORPLAST will lead to purposeful application-oriented material selection, accelerated alloy design, and the ability to tailor structural materials for extreme conditions and functional materials for new applications.

Keywords: intermetallics,plasticity,dislocations,electron microscopy,nanomechanics,atomistic simulations,neural networks
Advancing Phage Therapy through Synergistic Strategies: Phage-Mediated Killing and Competitive Exclusion using Engineered Prophages (PHAGE-PRO)

Framework: Horizon Europe — Excellent Science
Programme: European Research Council (ERC)
Theme: European research council
Destination: Starting grants
Action type: ERC actions
Panel: Biotechnology and Biosystems E ngineering
Panel description: Biotechnology using all organisms , biotechnology for environment  and food applications, applied plant and animal sciences , bioengineering and synthetic biology , biomass and biofuels , biohazards
Countries involved: Germany
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: 2
Project status: SIGNED

Amid the antibiotic resistance crisis, the century-old practice of phage therapy, the use of bacterial viruses to treat bacterial infections, has gained renewed attention. Despite extensive research and clear-cut advantages over antibiotics, phage therapy has yet to gain momentum. This is primarily due to remaining limitations, e.g., the time-consuming process of identifying suitable phages and limited in vivo efficacy. With PHAGE-PRO I propose a new technology to overcome the shortcomings of traditional phage therapy. Unlike the conventional use of lytic phages, I will capitalize on prophages – viruses that integrate into bacterial genomes capable of excision and replication. By integrating prophages into safe carrier strains, originating from probiotics, I will unlock two pivotal benefits, (1) rapid identification of suitable phages using advanced machine learning, (2) sustained in-vivo efficacy. Yet, the core advantage of PHAGE-PRO lies in its unparalleled synergy of phage killing and pathogen competitive exclusion imposed by the probiotic. To realize this concept, the development of predictive tools is essential to quickly identify the most promising prophages and probiotic combinations for each pathogen (WP1). Prophage engineering (WP2), followed by rigorous in vitro testing will ensure a high safety and efficacy. High-throughput in vivo experiments using wax moth larvae will reveal the most promising candidate which I will subsequently validate through a proof of principle experiment using a poultry model (WP3). Although I initially tailored PHAGE-PRO to treat Salmonella infections in poultry, its impact extends far beyond: This new technology holds the potential for transformative changes in phage therapy, not only advancing infection management in livestock farming through the enhancement of animal health and the assurance of food product safety, but also by opening the door for targeted preventive and therapeutic interventions in human medicine.

Keywords: phage therapy,prophage engineering,probiotics,antibiotic resistance,resistance evolution,bioinformatics,in vitro testing,in vivo experiments